Rising Tides
by Adgeless89
Summary: What would happen if the world of Remnant was home to the Elemental nations. See our heroes as a new threat looms on the horizon threatening both Hunters and Shinobi alike. Main pairing NaruxBlake, others still to be decided. Rated M for later chapters and Language.
1. Chapter 1

Authors note:

So I wanted to explain a few things before I began this story.

Location: This story is set in a slightly AU because I am putting the Elemental Nations inside the world of Remnant. I feel like this is justified by the sizes of the 2. When looking at the size of the Elemental Nations compared to the World of Remnant as a whole I think that it is totally believable that the former could be located inside of the latter. I also feel like this is an acceptable decision because if you watch any of Rooster Teeth's inside RWBY extra videos they explain that Remnant is largely unexplored outside the 4 main kingdoms and that small villages aren't uncommon and also tend to disappear. Plus this makes it so that I won't have to have Naruto appear through a fucking wormhole or have another story where Grandpa Six Paths gives him another chance. (nothing against stories where that is the premise, seriously look up the Red Thread of Fate, or Naruto the Huntsman 2 of my current favorites.)

Chakra vs Aura: this will be a main point and one that will be expanded upon more in the story as a way to keep the Shinobi or RWBY characters seeming OP compared to the others. Chakra and Aura will be 2 separate forces. I wont have all the Shinobi from the elemental nations learning Semblances just like I wont have Ruby or Yang throwing out Jutsu. Sufficed to say that Chakra is the greater offense while Aura is the greater defense.

If any of these are reason for you to complain then I apologize. I also warn that my labtop was just stolen and until I get a new one updates will be infrequent at best. I do promise to finish this story one way or the other. Pairings are set with NarutoxBlake as the only one for sure, others I may decide upon later.

My one time (because putting it in every chapter is tiresome) DISCLAIMER I don't own Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, or RWBY. I do encourage others to support the official release of these awesome series.

Last thing I swear this starts slightly off canon for either one spoilers may happen if you haven't caught up to Naruto Manga #693 or RWBY season 2 episode 6.

ON WITH THE STORY!

"normal talking"

"_Thought"_

"**Bijuu Talking"**

"_**Bijuu Thought"**_

Chapter one:

The clash of blades rang out as A raven haired teen had his katana blocked by a blonde haired teen of the same age. Each of the 2 pushed against the other looking to create an opening to exploit. Each of their faces held a different expression. These were Sasuke Uchiha truly the last of his once prodigious clan. His raven hair dripped with water that had been kicked up in their fight. His eyes mismatched eyes blazed with determination one showing the 3 tomoes of a fully matured Sharingan on a red surface. The other purple with rings running around the pupil also adorned with multiple tomoes this was the Rinnengan he received from the Sage of Six Paths to end the nightmare that was his mother Kaguya. Sparks flew as he pushed his blade again causing his Blonde opponent to fall ever so slightly off balance. Instantly Sasuke swung his blade in a flurry of strikes pushing the blonde further and further off kilter. The Tomoe of his Sharingan spun madly as he analyzed every motion down to the smallest subtlety looking for an opening. He would end the blondes life as the final stepping stone to achieving true peace. One more clash and the blonde jumped back a safe distance before locking eyes with Sasuke once more.

Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze looked at the resolve in the eyes of his brother in all but blood with a wholely different expression. In his bright blue eyes was resolve no weaker that Sasuke's own but, but it was joined by sadness that few would notice. It pained him to see his friend and comrade having strayed so far into darkness. His whiskered face was stern as he called out to Sasuke like so many times before.

"Sasuke, you know it doesn't have to be like this." He yelled at his black haired opponent.

"You're still so naïve Naruto." Sasuke retorted before continuing, "As long as any trace of it is left the old shinobi way will fester and make true peace impossible."

"That's not true, we've all experienced so much together. The path to peace has already been laid we just have to lead the way." Naruto answered back trying desperately to make his friend change his mind.

"I will lead the way, once I have removed any threat to the peace I will create" Sasuke yelled back. Again the two stared at each other, once again showing the different emotions. Sasuke's face contorted in rage as he pictured his parents, his brother, his whole clan. He couldn't allow those that created the world where he lost them to exist. It was a crime against their memory. "We're the same Naruto, both of us were robbed of our families by this cursed world." Sasuke shouted causing Naruto to glare at him earning a smirk from Sasuke before he continued. "I will make this world into place where no one will be hurt in such a way ever again. No wars no conflict only true peace."

"Do you not hear yourself Sasuke?" Naruto questioned his friend earning a glare from Sasuke. "You sound just like Madara, you promise peace but what you really bring is fear, and once you're gone that fear will give way to hatred and the cycle will start again." he shouted as tears formed in his blue eyes before they began to change to a golden color his round pupils becoming slits with bars crossing them horizontally. A cloak of yellow orange flames appeared around him as he called on the chakra granted to him by the same Sage of Six Path's who gave Sasuke the Rinningan in he left eye. Sasuke smirked realizing that Naruto was now taking the fight seriously and knew he would have to do the same. His Sharingan again began to spin making time seem to slow down as he seemingly disappeared. Naruto's arm instantly shot up as he thanked his reflexes, creating a bar in his hand out of one of the truth seeking balls floating behind him to block Sasuke's strike.

"That's it Naruto, no more words. Just like last time we'll show our hearts to each other through our fists" Sasuke said as a sinister grin spread across his face. Naruto let out a sigh knowing that it was no use talking to his friend at this point.

BREAK

Three girls walked through the hallways of Beacon Academy. What was widely regarded as the best training school in the world for would be hunters and huntresses was home to team RWBY. Ruby Rose the R, and leader of team RWBY. Her short black hair streaked with red accented her silver eyes. She wore a black combat skirt with black leggings and boots. Perhaps her most telling feature was a bright red cape around her shoulders slowly swaying behind her as she walked. She was the youngest member of her team, having been moved ahead 2 years. This fact constantly weighed on her, always making her desire to prove herself.

Next to her was a white haired girl with pale blue eyes, one of which sported a jagged scar. Her hair was waist length and worn in a ponytail off to one side. She also wore a combat skirt but hers was white in color and worn in succession with a white bolero jacket that had red trim inside it's collar and matching white low heeled boots. This girl was Weiss Schnee, Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. Known for her Haughty attitude and a sense of superiority she carried herself with a great sense of worth. Her teammates would tell you that she had actually improved leaps and bounds from her Ice Queen personality when they first came together. This fact did not however stop them from occasionally addressing her as such to mess with her ever so easily ruffled feathers.

Blake Belladonna was the third member of their team. Her waist length black hair fell freely to her back as she walked with her team. Her amber eyes turned up ever so slightly at the edges. Upon her head sat a large black bow. Most thought of it as her fashion statement to match the black vest she wore over a cutoff white button up shirt. She wore white pants with stockings that started black at the top and became purple the closer they got to her boots. Few people were aware that her bow hid a pair of feline ears, courtesy of her faunas heritage. Her time spent in the White Fang still a fear she maintained she chose to hide in plain sight, as she trained to become a huntress and make right some of the things she had helped to make wrong.

The final member of team RWBY was a rather Buxom blonde with lavender eyes. A confident smirk was plastered on the face of Yang Xiao Long, as yet another set of male eyes followed after her. She sported a brown vest whose shoulders were puffed out. Under this was an orange shirt that was cut low enough to show off a healthy amount of cleavage. He midriff was in full view as you came to the small half skirt she wore over a pair of black bicycle shorts. Brown boots over orange socks covered her feet and made a small clack as she kept pace with her teammates. The yellow bracelets around her wrists clicked a few times causing her to look down at them and frown.

"Hey Rubes, do you think you could help me look at Ember Celica?" Yang asked gesturing to her wrists with a frown.

"Yea I can help with that, but why don't you just do it? You did build them afterall." Ruby answered back smiling at her sister, causing Yang to frown even more.

"I dunno, I've looked at them a few times but something seems really off with them. I was hoping a weapon nut like your"

"Genius" Ruby cut her off with a scowl at being called a nut by her sister.

"Right a weapons "Genius" could spot something I missed" Yang finished putting her fingers up in quotation marks at the word genius. This earned another scowl from her sister who increased her pace and crossed her arms. "Come on sis you know I'm kidding" Yang called after her. When Ruby gave no response and turned the corner to continue to Professor Ozpin's office Yang's shoulders slumped in defeat.

"You shouldn't have teased her" Blake said garnering a sigh from her blonde partner.

"I know she just makes it so easy" Yang replied as they also turned the corner. She looked up to see Ruby standing there tapping her foot with her best angry expression on her face. This amounting to an angry looking toddler and therefore altogether unimpressive she coughed into one of her hands.

"I heard that" was all she said before Yang slumped even further down.

"Come on sis I really need your help"

"What's in it for me?" Ruby asked a sly smirk now on her face, earning a disgruntled sigh from the Schnee Heiress and an eye roll from their feline faunas.

"I dunno, can we talk about this later. If Ozpin wants us on a mission I need my babies firing on all cylinders" Yang answered back as they all resumed walking.

"Fine I'll look at them before we leave but you owe me, and it's not just gonna go away with cookies" Ruby tried to warn again failing miserably. Yang smirked to herself knowing this was a 2 dozen cookie problem at most. The girls finally came to a stop at their destination outside the headmasters office. Yang raised her hand to knock on the door only for Professor Ozpin to open the door just before her knuckles made contact.

"How does he do that?" Yang asked but she would receive no answer as the grey haired man ushered them into his office. The four girls watched him walk around his desk before sitting down. He set his cane down before reaching out grab his ever present mug of coffee and take a long drink. His green suit as neat as ever, he pushed his spectacles up his nose before he began to speak.

"Tell me what do you ladies know about the north lands?" Ozpin questioned causing the girls to look at each other. This was not what they were expecting.

END

Hey all, thanks for reading. I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter of Rising Tides. Please feel free to review hopefully I can have the next chapter up soon since I already have it mostly planned, I just need a computer to type it on. Till next time stay awesome.

P.S. Flames totally welcome they make me laugh.


	2. Chapter 2

Authors note:

Yo welcome back everyone. I have to be totally honest I was surprised to see the reaction to this story. it convinced me to suck it up and buy a new Chromebook sooner than I had planned to so that I could continue to write it. First off thanks for all the follows and favs that made me happy to see so many people interested. Also I apologize for the stupid grammar mistakes in there, hopefully there will be less of those in forthcoming chapters. I had a couple of people PM me asking about how there can be both Aura/Dust & Chakra, and the best way that I can explain it ahead of time is think of the human race as a whole and all differences between us. Going from place to place you see all different races of humans as a product of their environment. That is the same sort of thing going on here, and I promise hopefully it will make sense and not be lame when I get to it in the story. As far as a second question the Infinite Tsukuyomi yes it is only affecting the Elemental nations, not the greater world of Remnant where this story is taking place. I say this because again when looking at the size of the Elemental nations and choosing to place them on the Northwestern island that is the entire world to them. I chose to make it a place that since no Kingdoms are on or near the Shinobi villages would be free to expand as they have. Lastly yes Sasuke and Naruto and that whole cast is being made a couple of years older by simple way of saying that Naruto's training trip with Jiraiya was longer. Anyways enough of me talking on with the story.

Rising Tides: chapter 2

The four girls that comprised team Rwby looked at each other no one of them sure of how to respond to Ozpin's question. As he took a sip of his coffee Ozpin scanned over all of them one by one waiting for one of them to speak up. It was Weiss who finally cleared her throat before beginning.

"I know daddy sent a couple of investigational expeditions there but they disappeared every time." she looked at the floor as she finished remembering how angry her father had been both times.

"It's said that there is some kind of disturbance up there so strong ships are thrown off course just by coming near it." Blake added never having been one to believe wives tales like that she still found them interesting. Ozpin's gaze lifted as he nodded before taking another sip of coffee.

"For years we have been sending small drones to try and survey that area. We wanted to know why anything powered by dust seemed to fail. Can you girls guess how this has worked out for us?" he asked the team.

"Uuummm is that a trick question?" Ruby asked unsure of how to proceed.

"Indeed it is Miss Rose." Ozpin answered looking at the girl who let out a relieved sigh. "Not a single one has returned, much less survived long enough to relay photos back. That is until yesterday." he left the subtle proclamation hang in the air.

"So what does the Northlands look like?" Yang asked being the first to catch on to Ozpin's suggestion, before throwing out one of her own. "I assume that it has something to do with why we are here." she stated plainly causing her teammates and headmaster to look at her.

"I'm glad you asked Miss Xiao Long, and you are correct in thinking that." Ozpin set his mug down and folded his hands in front of himself. As he did this a blonde woman with green eyes walked into the office. She wore a white shirt under a black vest. A short cape on her back which was purple on the inside and black on the outside. A knee length skirt covered her lower half. She held a scroll which she projected images from onto a large screen behind Ozpin. This was his assistant Glynda Goodwitch, he face was serious as she clicked on her scroll going through the images for the girls to see.

"This island is one of a group on the very southern edge of the Northlands." Glynda began to explain continuing to show more pictures. "We only got these few pictures back before the drone shorted out but we have no idea what could be happening. it appears that people once lived on this continent."

"While small villages have been known to exist, this looks like a fully fledged city." Ozpin continued on while Glynda stopped on a particular image.

"It looks like this city is mostly intact other than one thing." Glynda pointed her dust crop at what appeared to be a large tree root going over the center of the city. "The size of the tree that caused this root is something we have never seen." she said a scrutinizing look coming over her pale features.

" That's cool and all but what does this have to do with us?" Yang asked earning a smirk from Ozpin and a glare from his assistant.

"A valid question miss Xiao Long, and to answer it here is one of my own. What do you notice about this seemingly abandoned settlement?" Ozpin asked the whole team as he again looked at each of them. There was a long pause as the four girls thought over the question. Sure the city seemed abandoned, but none of them could think of anything. "A hint what is something you four experienced the last time you went into an abandoned city?" Ozpin questioned hoping the girls would catch on. Each one of them held a serious look on their face as they all tried to figure what they were missing.

"GRIMM!" Ruby finally shouted as it dawned on her. "There are no Grimm anywhere in these pictures."

"Usually abandoned cities are swarming with Grimm, and if not swarming they still have some presence in them." Blake added on to Ruby's statement.

"I still don't see what this has to do with us?" Yang interjected into the conversation before continuing on "shouldn't we be focusing on finding Torchwick or the White Fang?"

"As loathe as I am to admit it, I agree with Yang." Weiss stated "Some abandoned city is nothing for us to concern ourselves with."

"All in good time ladies." Ozpin sipped from his coffee. "We must be prepared for all eventualities. That being said I want to send you on another mission to look over this city." The three girls blanched at the declaration of their headmaster knowing that none of them could say no to him. "You will be sent in with a third year team in order to gain more experience in the field."

"When do we leave sir?" Ruby asked

"I will send you the information as soon as I pick a team to send with you. You are dismissed for now." Ozpin finished as he gestured towards the door.

BREAK

Two giant figures stood with their fists locked together as they grappled for superiority. One a purple figure with two wings coming from its back. The other a yellow and orange entity vaguely resembling a fox with nine tails. The two behemoths pushed each other back as they prepared to fire attacks at the other again. The purple being moved like it was pulling back a bow, while the fox charged energy into a giant black sphere in its mouth. The attacks fired forward meeting in the middle causing a deafening explosion. As the dust settled and steam began to clear six orange tails shot towards the purple giant one wrapping around each arm, another around each leg, then one for the waist, and one around it's neck.

Inside the protective shell of his perfected Susanoo Sasuke Uchiha grit his teeth in annoyance. While his Sharingan could read physical movements Naruto's purely chakra based attacks could not be predicted. The Susanoo raised it's purple hand immediately conjuring a matching purple sword which he used to lash out at the main body of Naruto's Chakra manifestation. The orange fox jumped back all the while never relinquishing it's hold on Sasuke's Susanoo.

"Sasuke, Itachi didn't want this for you and you know it." Naruto yelled.

"I told you already Naruto, Itachi is in the past." Sasuke yelled back as his Susanoo continued to struggle against it's bindings.

"You can't shoulder this on your own Sasuke you need others to help you." again tears threatened to fall from Naruto's eyes as he looked at his friend. "That's why I told you to save up your hatred for me. I'll help you carry it"

"I'll give you my hatred Naruto." Sasuke calmly replied. "I'll end your life with it, all of it. All of my anger, MY SORROW, MY HATRED, ALL OF IT NARUTO! CAN YOU HANDLE THAT RESPONSIBILITY?" he continued his voice growing into a roar by the end.

"You know my answer Sasuke" The foxes hand went back before lashing out to strike Sasuke's Susanoo in the face. The head of his Susanoo reeled backwards from the blow as the fox tails pulled him closer to itself. Before Sasuke could react the arms of the fox wrapped around his Susanoo restraining it further. "You aren't alone Sasuke, why do you try so hard to forget that?" Naruto asked. For once Sasuke had no reply. Why did he not have a reply was the only thing he thought to himself, and the more he considered it the more angry he became.

The corners of his eyes stung as he felt tears begin to form. He was sure that this was the right thing to do. Just like Itachi had suffered the burden of hate from his village, so Sasuke would endure the hatred of the world. Through their combined hatred of him they would come together and peace would be achieved. Judge, jury and executioner is what he would become for anyone who threatened his peace, and so quick would his wrath be that even after he passed on the world would fear the ire of the last Uchiha. Perhaps that would be his clans new purpose. Instead of being a clan ruled by their hatred, they would control the hatred of others for the sake of them all.

Instantly the arms of his Susanoo broke free, and again drew its bow and fired at the legs of the fox holding it. Naruto had no choice but to let go and jump away as Sasuke fired a barrage of arrows at him. As Naruto dodged more and more of the arrows he began to lash out with the tails of the fox. Sasuke blocked one tail and again called on a sword to slash at another one.

"I am alone Naruto, why wont you realize that?" Sasuke yelled as he swung the sword of his Susanoo only for it to be blocked by Naruto's fox tails.

"Because Sasuke as long as I am here you aren't alone." Naruto yelled back as he sprung at Sasuke he chakra shroud biting down on the shoulder of Susanoo. Sasuke's Susanoo jumped into the air prying itself out of Naruto's grip once again. While he floated in the air the left hand of his Susanoo began to crackle with electricity. Naruto scowled as he once again gathered energy for a tailed beast ball. The two friends stared at each other trying to impart their will upon the other, before Sasuke dove towards the ground the Susanoo's hand outstretched. Naruto jumped into the air to meet him causing the two attacks to collide once again placing the two at the epicenter of an earth shaking blast.

The two teens fell to the ground both impacting with enough force to kill normal people. Both of them were spent as they tried to climb back to their feet and face the other. Naruto looked at Sasuke as they stood up. By this point the length of their battle had worn both of them beyond their limits. Sasuke's eyes slowly faded to their normal black color while Naruto's chakra shroud faded around him.

Sasuke made the first move as he sluggishly ran at Naruto causing Naruto to run towards him as well. The two began to trade punches and kicks with neither one being able to gain a real advantage on the other. Sasuke threw a punch that caught Naruto on the cheek but instead of simply falling back Naruto used to momentum to throw his foot up harder connecting painfully with Sasuke's jaw. As Sasuke stumbled backwards from the blow Naruto rushed at him unleashing a flurry of punches into Sasuke's gut and chest. Slowly after absorbing a large number of blows Sasuke was able to regain his senses and begin to block some of the hits and retaliate with his own. Both teens drew their fists back and hurled them forward with all of their might bringing them crashing into the others face. They held this stance with both of their heads turned from the impact glaring at each other daring the other to fall down first. With neither willing to back down they in unison brought their other fist back only to send it crashing into the others face, resuming their staring match.

This time it was Sasuke who ended the stalemate bringing his left leg up to kick at Naruto's midsection. Naruto turned ever so slightly and caught the kick pulling the leg toward him. This motion caused Sasuke to lose his balance for an instant giving Naruto enough of an opening to drive another fist into Sasuke's gut. Sasuke responded by rearing his head back and snapping it forward. He winced as his forehead made contact with Naruto's before he landed a punch to Naruto's jaw causing the blonde to stagger backwards.

Sasuke charged him ready to deliver another strike to the blondes face. Naruto feigned a punch at Sasukes face as well causing the Uchiha to pull his punch at the last second preparing to block. He let out a pained grunt as Naruto ducked low and brought his elbow into his stomach again causing Sasuke to cough a small amount of blood. Naruto soon let out his own pained grunt as Sasuke turned his body enough to bury his knee in Naruto's midsection. This was followed by a fist to the back of Naruto's head and another to his face. Sasuke smirked as he looked at the trickle of blood coming from Naruto's nose, before sending more punches at the blondes head. Naruto did his best to block as Sasuke continued his volley of punches aimed at his whiskered cheeks.

In a moment of desperation to halt Sasuke's momentum Naruto faked like he lost his balance and moved to stomp his foot down on top of Sasuke's. Sasuke moved his foot back allowing Naruto to step forward and wrap his arms around Sasuke like their avatars had before. He leaned his head back before repaying Sasuke for his headbut earlier. This was however the first of many as Naruto continued to slam their heads together. Sasuke's vision blurred as Naruto took full advantage of the metal plate on his hitai-ate to inflict more damage on Sasuke. It took all of the raven haired teens focus to channel some of the little chakra he had remaining into a current of electricity and shock the blonde into letting go of him.

The two stared at each other as they stood slumped over and breathing heavily. Both wore a grimace on their face as they slowly stepped toward each other. The distance between them closed before both of them fell forward. For the third time that day Naruto had his arms around Sasuke. Tears streamed out of both of their eyes as they held each other up.

"Why do keep fighting?" Sasuke asked with a desperate tone in his voice.

"Because you need me to." was Naruto's simple answer. "I can take your hate now but if you follow through with this plan of yours you'll surely grow to hate again and who will take it then?" Naruto pictured Itachi and remembered the words of the late Uchiha. "'You certainly have become stronger, you gained power. But you seem to be forgetting something very important.' Itachi said to me. 'Listen and remember. The reason the people of the village used to hate you, started to admire you and consider you their comrade. You said 'It's thanks to them that I could come this far'. If now that you are more powerful you forget about others, to be arrogant and too attached to your ego one day you will become just like Madara' I never forgot that, and you know something he was right." Naruto said as he pictured his mother and father again. "Itachi was able to admit that his greatest shortcoming was his desire to do things himself, and I'm sure he said the same thing to you Sasuke." Sasuke continued to shed tears as he remembered his brothers faith that he could have changed the minds of his clan had he been allowed the chance. "Sasuke is this really what he would have wanted? Come back with us we can be Team Seven again, the disciples of the great Copy Ninja and students of the the Sannin."

"How do we know this will work?" Sasuke asked feebly. "They all had a hand in creating this world."

"You remember what Jiji used to say about one generation always surpassing the next?"

"You mean the Sandaime?"

"Yup Jiji" Naruto answered with a smirk. "This is our chance we'll end this feud between the sons at the same time. What do you say?" Black eyes met blue as Sasuke decided what he would do.

Ultra cliff hanger status. WOOOOO

WASSUP thanks for reading chapter 2 of Rising tides. 2692 words not counting either authors note. Anywho please read and review they make me happy. Flames welcome because they keep me warm at night.


	3. Chapter 3

Rising Tides Chapter 3

Welcome back everyone. I just wanted to say again thanks for the continued support of the story. I will try to maintain my current pace of about one chapter a week. A few things that I feel need to be addressed before I start this chapter.

1: I will need to introduce some OC's for the 3rd year team. I haven't yet decided whether they'll be recurring characters.

2: There WILL be character deaths in this story, get the hell over it. If you don't like it quit reading but flame me first I like to read them and laugh.

now that those are out of the way I apologize again for grammar errors. I don't know why but I CANNOT write four girls when I talk about team RWBY. As far as the fight scene I apologize if I am a little rusty in writing those. I am going to try having technique names in japanese with the translation before the ending authors note. I'll be testing that this chapter since there will actually be some jutsu's slung around. If there is a suggestion for a better way to do this please let me know. After all I want to keep you guys happy. Disclaimer first chapter, now on with the story.

Rising Tides Chapter: 3

Pain was the only thing that Naruto registered as he looked down at an oh too familiar sight. Sasuke's arm crackled with electricity even now that it stuck through Naruto's chest. Sorrow adorned the faces of both the blonde and black haired teens there.

"Why Sasuke?" Naruto asked before coughing up blood. "Why would you do this?"

"I have given you all of my hate Naruto." Sasuke replied as a sad look came over his face as well, as he pulled his hand out of Naruto's chest. He noticed how Naruto began to heal because of the residual Bijuu chakra inside him, however it was much slower than when the Kurama had been there. Naruto slouched forward his head on Sasuke's shoulder before he fell flat on his chest as Sasuke rose to his feet. "It's up to you now Naruto, if you're too weak to bear my hatred then we have nothing further to do." Sasuke coldly stated as he turned his back and began to walk away.

Naruto laid on the ground as tears streamed from his eyes. This wasn't how it was supposed to end, he wasn't the Hokage yet. He thought of all his friends still trapped in the Infinite Tsukuyomi. This couldn't be how this worked out. Sasuke turned his head back to see Naruto cough more blood onto the ground, but he continued walking. For all he said about wanting to end Naruto's life he couldn't bare to watch his blonde friend die. He was too tired to use his teleportation having spent all his energy on his final Chidori. He would savor his walk to the five Kage's as the final accomplishment on the road to peace.

Break

Naruto found himself floating once again and realized that he must have died. As cool as he thought that Grandpa Oonoki's ability to fly was Naruto could say beyond the shadow of a doubt that he was getting really sick of floating around. He looked in front of him to see the nine Bijuu circled around him once more.

"Whats going on I thought that Sasuke has you all locked up?" He asked as he scratched the back of his head in confusion.

"He has our physical forms yes but this plane cannot be controlled by him." Matatabi stated lowering her head to look at Naruto.

"Oi boy, are you really gonna lose to a punk like that?" Son Goku questioned causing Naruto to scowl.

"I don't know what to do." Naruto responded earning him a variety of looks from the nine Bijuu present.

"Ha not like you to give up so quickly brat" Kurama said in a slightly mocking tone, causing Naruto to turn and point at the giant fox.

"I'm not giving up ya know, stupid fox. I just don't know how to beat Sasuke." Naruto's shoulders slumped as he continued. "He's so much stronger than me."

"Brat when has that ever stopped you before?" Shukaku yelled. "Loathe as I am to admit it when you fought my container he was leagues ahead of you and yet you still won." Naruto looked at all of them again before an idea hit him.

"Wait if I can meet you all in here does that mean you can give me more of your chakra?"

"Technically no while that Uchiha brat has us under his control we cannot give you anything" Isobu said lowering his head slightly, only to look up at Kokuo as he began talking

"We can't give it but maybe Naruto can still take it." Kokuo suggested

"Actually that may work, the Uchiha only controls our physical forms not our spirits or our wills" Kurama stated

"Naruto is strong enough to take Kurama's chakra with him fighting for it, if we don't resist it should be easy for Naruto to takes out chakra's" Saiken pointed out earning a huff from Kurama.

"Naruto there's your answer even if we can't be there we can help you." Gyuki

"Now we're always on your side boy so go show that pest Uchiha who's boss now." Chomei declared.

"You know I'll win now thanks for your help guys I'll start taking some of that chakra to heal myself. Then I'll stop Sasuke for sure." Naruto answered as he turned to leave

"Naruto!" Kurama shouted causing Naruto to turn back. "Do what has to be done."

"Sorry Kurama you know I never go back on my word…." Naruto left his statement hanging as Kurama looked at his back a scowl on his face.

BREAK

After their return from Ozpin's office team RWBY found themselves in their dorm room occupying themselves before they went to bed. Weiss was studying a book on her lap, Ruby sat in her bed polishing her beloved scythe crescent rose, Blake was reading a book, and finally Yang was pacing the floor between their bunk beds of death and grating on the nerves of her three teammates.

"Why would he send us on some wild goose chase to an uninhabited island?" Yang asked to no one in particular. This finally caused Blake to sigh and put her book down.

"Yang calm down, it's a mission and we have to complete at least a few of them before we graduate." Blake said trying to placate her partner

"Blake is right Yang we should be thankful that this is such an easy mission and we get to mark down credit for it." Weiss said hoping Yang would stop since her pacing was the only thing keeping the white haired girl awake.

"Come on sis, we can't always worry about Torchwick." Ruby added.

"I know that, and that's not what I'm worried about" Yang said netting her confused looks from the other three girls.

"It.. it's not?"Ruby asked slightly uncomfortable with her sisters behavior. As long as she could remember Yang had always been confident and full of energy, so seeing her this on edge was not helping Ruby either.

"No, Rubes you remember what dad always said about the Northlands?"

"Yea he said if we haven't been able to get up there for a reason and he wanted to know what it was." Ruby said recounting her dad's many stories of what could possibly inhabit the Northlands. All four of them knew that many expeditions besides the Schnee companies attempts had been made all of them having equally sour results. For the entirety of all of their lives trips to the Northlands had a near one hundred percent mortality rate.

"But Ozpin said he was sending another team with us." Weiss pointed out.

"I don't know guys, I just can't shake the feeling that something bad is over there" Yang said as she crawled up into her bed. Weiss turned out the lights and the members of team RWBY drifted off to sleep.

The next morning began far too early for any of their liking with four scrolls chiming at the same time. All of them held the same message from the headmaster that their shuttle would be leaving in 3 hours and to be prepared by that time. Yang and Weiss raced to shower first, a contest which the heiress lost. As they showered one by one and got ready for their trip they were surrounded by an uneasy silence. It was finally Ruby who broke the ice.

"Alright team RWBY let's move out." She commanded as they headed out the door and to the airfields. Once again as they walked they were shrouded in silence each occupied by their own thoughts. The airfields came into view and with them their coffee drinking headmaster. Ozpin took a sip of his coffee as a tall man with a slender build said something to him.

"Are these the one's we're supposed to babysit?" the man asked causing the other three with him to snicker and all of the members of team RWBY to glare at him.

"Now now Hadrian I told you to be nice, these young ladies are more than qualified to help you on this reconnaissance mission." Ozpin said before sipping his coffee again.

"Yea yea here's the deal ladies I am Hadrian Brouer head of team HLCN." The man named Hadrian stated in a voice that seemed to not match his build. He stood at six foot four inches with long brown hair scruff covering his face. He had hazel eyes and looked as though he was tired judging by the bags under his eyes. He gestured over his shoulder at his team "These are Lucas and Cassius Denizen" a pair of blue haired red eyed twins waved. "And that, is Nerama Otung." A large dark skinned man with pink hair and black eyes grunted.

"Hello I am Ruby Rose the fearless leader of team RU.." Ruby started to say.

"You talk too much, besides I know who all of you are." Hadrian stated with a deadpan expression on his face. "I read the mission details, now on the ship. I don't care what Professor Ozpin says I will not have this be delayed by your first year bullshit." Ruby gasped at his choice of words, causing the third year mission head to turn and gawk at her. "Really bullshit sets you off?"

"Hey lay off jackass, we can handle ourselves just tell us what to do." Yang finally spoke up coming to Ruby's side.

"Oh this one is feisty." Hadrian said getting Yang to glare at him. "Maybe I won't hate all of you after all."

"Now all of you know your assignment." Ozpin said after clearing his throat to get their attention. "This is a simple information gathering mission. We will drop you at a dock in the north of Vale from there you will take to the sea to approach the Northlands." All of the hunters in training nodded their heads. "Their should be no need for combat since these settlements look abandoned. However be prepared for anything and use force if necessary to defend yourself." Another sip of his coffee and Ozpin smiled at them all before continuing. "Oh and one more thing good luck." With that the shuttle doors began to close as all of the students made their way to seats.

As the ship flew towards it's destination the Denizen twins continued to smirk and chuckle as they whispered to each other.

"Knock it off you two they're going to get angry and I don't want to deal with it." Hadrian said getting both of his subordinates to look at him before continuing with their previous actions. A particularly loud bout of laughter finally put Weiss over the edge as she looked at Hadrian.

"What are those morons laughing about?" she asked pointing at the twins.

"They're trying to figure out which of you are virgins" Hadrian stated his eyes still closed. This caused all four members of team RWBY to blush furiously earning more laughter from one of the twins.

"I told you all of them now pay up bitch!" Lucas declared triumphantly as Cassius glared before pulling out some lien to give to his brother. All of team RWBY as well as Hadrian and Nerama had the same thought, that this was going to be a very long flight.

BREAK

Sasuke smirked as he finally reached the cocoons that contained the five Kage. Now that he had dispatched Naruto, he would remove this final blemish and usher in true peace for the shinobi nations. He scowled as he thought of Naruto he was not happy that he had killed his friend, however he knew that it had to be done. Slowly Sasuke pulled his sword from it's sheath. One swing was all he would need to liberate the world from the Kage's mistakes.

"I judge you five as my first, and I find you guilty. the penalty for your crimes is death." Sasuke said to himself as he swung his sword back.

"No I won't let you." Sakura called as she came up behind him and grabbed his sword in between her hands.

"You are still annoying." Sasuke said as he turned to look at the pink haired girl. "Chidori Nagashi" Sasuke said releasing a current of electricity from his body which caused Sakura to cry out in pain and crumple to the ground. He looked down at her with distaste. "You know I still would have used you to rebuild my clan. Now however you have interfered with my justice for the last time."

"Sasuke-kun please." Sakura whimpered as she reached forward and grabbed his leg.

"Chidori Nagashi." Sasuke repeated again causing Sakura to yell out.

"Sasuke stop this now." Naruto yelled his eyes turning red with anger seeing Sasuke do this to their teammate.

"Naruto, so you did manage to survive." Sasuke said legitimately surprised to see the blonde, before he smirked cruelly. "This time I'll just have to be more thorough" He said as in one swift motion he flipped his sword into a reverse grip and drove it down through Sakura's chest.

"Sasuke!" Naruto shrieked as Sasuke turned the sword causing Sakura to let out yet another scream.

"Naruto I'm sorry." Sakura said weakly as she felt her body going numb.

"Sasuke stop this." Naruto yelled tears streaming down his face as he saw Sakura's hand fall limply to the ground. "Why.?" Naruto asked looking at the blank expression on Sakura's face. "Why would you do that?" Naruto began to pull in Bijuu chakra as he looked at Sasuke who just smirked at him in return. "Answer me you bastard." Naruto screamed as he launched at Sasuke connecting his fist with Sasuke's face. The blow sent the Uchiha reeling before he flipped to land on his feet, and began weaving hand seals. He was too tired to use his Rinnegan at the moment but he couldn't let Naruto know that.

"Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu" Sasuke called before he unleashed a barrage of large fireballs at Naruto. He was certain that the fight had left Naruto in worse shape than himself, finishing the blonde for good would be easy.

"Not this time Sasuke." Naruto said as he emerged from the flames completely unscathed. "Now we finish this." Naruto thought back to Kurama's words and felt sad that he now knew there was no other way.

"Come on Naruto, you think you can defeat me." Sasuke yelled at Naruto as he began to gather the last of his chakra for his end game. He was barely able to suppress a gasp as Naruto's eyes once again turned orange, his pupils turning into barred slits. Orange flames seemed to engulf him as he walked towards Sasuke with tears streaming down past his boldened whisker marks.

"Sasuke, I promised Sakura that I'd bring you back." Naruto said as their eyes met. "But now that you've taken her from me I have no reason to keep that promise." as he said this all of the chakra around Naruto turned red as did his eyes. Before Sasuke could comprehend it Naruto had sprinted the distance between them and slammed his fist into Sasuke's gut. Sasuke coughed up blood then let out a pained grunt as Naruto brought his elbow crashing into Sasuke's back.

"Is that all you've got Naruto?" Sasuke mocked as he jumped back. He threw his sword at Naruto to distract him as he weaved the necessary seals. "Katon: Goryuka no Jutsu" Sasuke called as he launched one massive flame dragon at Naruto before sending the rest skyward. Again Naruto emerged from the flames with Sasuke's own seeming to be pushed back by the ones surrounding Naruto.

"Are you done Sasuke?" Naruto questioned as rain drops began to slowly fall before becoming a heavy downpour.

"Oh no Naruto, I will kill you with the same technique I used against Itachi." Sasuke yelled as he began to channel electricity around himself. "I will guide natures wrath against you with this. KIRIN" A large ethereal dragon made of lightning began to lower itself out of the air. As it did so Naruto again called upon more of the Bijuu chakra to manifest Kurama. After the giant fox had taken shape, he called forth his Gudodama to create a large blade which the fox took hold of. Red eyes met black once again as the two charged each other. The fox used its blade to deflect the lighting attack before smothering it completely to absorb the blast of its dispersion. As this occurred Naruto shot forward out of the fox Rasengan in hand towards the stunned Sasuke. As the swirling orb made contact with the last Uchiha's abdomen Naruto saw the smirk break across Sasuke's face.

The rain continued to fall as the broken body of Sasuke Uchiha impacted the ground followed by the feet of Naruto Uzumaki. Once his feet had touched down he dispelled his chakra shroud and fell to his knees besides the black haired teen. Tears stung his eyes as Sasuke smiled up at him.

"Now the curse is broken." Sasuke said causing Naruto to look at him in anger and confusion.

"What are you talking about, how can it be broken if I killed you?" Naruto yelled as tears continued to fall. "You lost surely Indra will be reborn which means Ashura will aswell."

"Not if I wanted to lose." Sasuke said as he coughed up blood.

"What?" Naruto punched the ground next to Sasuke's head as his mind again flooded with the lifeless green eyes of Sakura. "You bastard if you wanted to lose then why fight? Why kill Sakura and capture the Bijuu?"

"I needed you to beat me, and I knew that would put you over the edge. for what it's worth I am truly sorry." Sasuke coughed more blood before he chuckled. "I told you I would bear this worlds hate and now that I am dying my name can carry it forever." Sasuke smiled as he weakly raised his hands "Kai" was all he said before they fell limply onto his chest and his eyes also dulled as he passed on.

All around the battlefield and the Elemental nations as a whole the cocoons began to unravel letting people fall to the ground and awaken from the Infinite Tsukuyomi. They celebrated their release and the blonde boy who had saved them all from every new evil that arose during the war. Yes the entire Elemental Nations would praise Naruto Uzumaki as the one who ushered in true peace but at this moment he cried. Bitter tears knowing that Sasuke really had died a good man. Yet it would be a fact that he alone would honor. Tears for Sakura, he had long ago accepted that they were just friends. So long as he could spend time with her he was ok with that, but now he only had his memories.

"It's over Naruto" Kakashi said as he shed his own tears for his fallen students. He knew the truth about Sasuke but like Naruto that was a secret he would take to his grave to honor Sasuke's final sacrifice. He wasn't sure how long he stood there in the rain but he wished that it could have been longer.

BREAK

In a dark warehouse a man with bright orange hair lit a cigar and brought it up to take a puff. As he did this a slender woman with black hair dressed in a red dress came up behind him and looked at a world map on the wall. She circled the Northlands before turning and walking away smirking as the orange haired man sighed, obviously not pleased with her decision of where to move their operation to.

Jutsu list

Chidori Nagashi: One thousand birds current

Gudodama: Truth-seeking Ball

Man that was a rough chapter to write. I am not going to lie I changed this a few times. Yes Roman makes his first appearance. Team Halcyon is absolutely based on myself and friends. Still not sure how long they'll be around. Kind of a sad ending I know but I think it's for the best. Sasuke isn't a complete jackass and I removed Sakura to clear the way for Naruto and Blake later on. Thanks for reading please review. Till next time.


	4. Chapter 4

Welcome back everyone. I hope that you enjoyed the last chapter. I am serious when I said at the end that it was very hard to write that chapter in a way that satisfied me. In regards to the Oc's there is going to be a poll up on my profile as far as whether or not to continue them after the arc that I created them for is over, and to what extent should they be allowed to continue. I was possibly thinking that one of them could be a potential love interest, but I will leave that up to you guys. I apologize for part of the chapter being to introduce them more and flesh them out a bit. Anywho hopefully if you guys like it you'll drop me a review and vote for the OC poll. Flames always welcome because they make me smile. Here we go, see disclaimer in the first chapter.

Rising Tides: Chapter 4

It seemed to Naruto like the entire village had turned out for the memorial to all those who had fallen in the war. People were always stopping to thank him and offer their condolences. He shook all the hands and thanked them. More than a few times he had to hold his tongue when people said anything derogatory towards Sasuke. He had to remind himself that he and Kakashi were the only ones who knew the truth.

Tsunade had given her speech about how every life that was lost was irreplaceable. Naruto knew this all too well. He had barely convinced her to allow Sasuke to be buried inside the village. This was only accomplished when he agreed that the grave should be unmarked. Once again only Kakashi and himself would know the truth.

As the memorial gave way to a celebration of victory the somber mood was quickly outshone by the happiness that peace was restored. Naruto paced through the village with his hands in his pockets. He had no particular destination in mind as he wandered. It wasn't until he actually came to a stop that he realized he had ended up outside the Ichiraku's ramen shop. A small smile played across Naruto's face as he entered the small stall. The smile grew into a full out grin as everyone present in the shop erupted in cheers for the blonde. After signing no small number of autographs, and shaking even more hands it was finally Teuchi Ichiraku himself who saved the poor teen.

Alright all of you alright, let the boy have his food and eat it in peace I think that he has at least earned that much." The ramen chef yelled causing a few of the females in the group to blush.

"Thanks old man I haven't had your ramen in forever, lets start small ten bowls of miso ramen." Naruto said with his same grin on his face as he patted his stomach. Several people present blanched at his declaration of ordering small and then asking for ten bowls. Old man Ichiraku began to cook the ramen with the help of Ayame who came around the counter to give Naruto a hug before she went to help her father. This caused more than a few angry glances at the ramen chef's daughter, all of which Naruto was completely ignorant of.

As Naruto continued to chow down on his ramen he listened to some of the idle chatter. Someone in the restaurant mentioned that Kurama had been spotted in the area around the village. This again made Naruto smile as he remembered how he had finally won the Bijuu their freedom.

FLASHBACK

"We cannot allow these monsters to go free, They are property of the villages" A large muscular dark skinned man said.

"Raikage-sama please calm yourself." A slender woman in a tattered blue dress shot back at him causing him to scowl.

"I feel like we should here Naruto out on this issue seeing as he is the closest thing that we have to an expert on the matter of the bijuu." A blonde woman with her hair in pigtails said motioning for Naruto to step forward.

"They want to be left alone. That's all there is to it." Naruto declared making the five kages present look at him. "The Bijuu may be chakara manifestations but they are still able to think and feel. They are living creatures and now that this is over they just want to be left alone. Gyuki-san already said that he wants to return to cloud village with Octopops to protect it. Kurama is my friend even though he'd never admit it so he'll probably stay around Konohagakure." the blonde teen explained.

"See that leaves an unfair void in power if the nations should fall into war." Oonoki said to the group.

"Are you really that uncertain in the peace that we've created Grandpa Tsuchikage?" Naruto questioned the old man as well as indirectly targeting all the other Kage present.

"I think that Naruto has a point." Mifune the old samurai general said taking all eyes onto himself. "The bijuu have no cause to join any war that may arise between the nation. Seeing as they are creatures with their own wills and did infact help us defeat Madara, as well as helping Naruto defeat the Uchiha I think they have earned their freedom."

"Thank you Samurai-San." Naruto said lowering his head. "But know this, should any of you move to imprison one of the Bijuu for anything other than a direct attack on your village you'll have to answer to me." The threat hung in the air as Naruto raised his head his eyes having taken on their orange color with barred slits for his pupils. All those present

"Alright then let us put it to a vote." Gaara said to break the silence. "I for one vote the Bijuu remain free."

"I second that vote Kazekage-Sama" Said Tsunade.

"Restrain them" Oonoki said.

"I say they need to be contained" A roared. As he finished all eyes turned again to Mei the Mizukage for the apparent tiebreaker.

"It would appear that my vote is not needed since it is also for the Bijuu to remain free." The red headed woman said.

"Thank you, all of you." Naruto said with a smile on his face. "They have no reason to make moves against you, I know that they'll behave themselves as long as you don't give them a reason to act."

END FLASHBACK

Naruto remembered watching as all of the Bijuu had gone their separate ways. He could still communicate with them if he wanted to, but only really did so if they came to him. As he finally finished his ramen and waved goodbye to the Ichiraku's, he began to walk down the street again with a smile on his face.

"Yo Naruto!" Kakashi called from the rooftops before jumping down to the road. "What's the hero of the Elemental Nations doing walking along by himself?" Kakashi asked looking up from his favorite orange book.

"Oh you know Kakashi-sensei just enjoying the peace." Naruto responded looking at the single uncovered eye Kakashi had. "Hey I've been meaning to ask Kakashi-sensei since you don't have the Sharingan anymore how come you still keep your left eye covered?"

"Oh you know just to keep up appearances" Kakashi said back. "Are you headed to talk to Kurama-san?" Kakashi asked the blonde before telling him how the fox had come and asked for him.

"Oh, I wonder why Kurama wants to talk to me?" Naruto puzzled before turning to his one eyed sensei. "Alrighty Kakashi-sensei I guess I'd better go see what the fuzzball wants."

Kakashi simply waved his free hand before walking away as Naruto turned and headed towards the gate. He continued to wonder what Kurama could want to see him about until the main gate came into view and with it 9 bright orange tails swishing to and fro. Naruto waved at the gate keepers as he made his way out to talk to the giant fox.

"Oi Fuzzball what're you doing here?" Naruto shouted at the nine tailed fox causing everyone near by to blanch as the fox grew an indignant look on it's face.

"You little runt." He roared as he raised himself up to his full height. This feat was made all the more intimidating by the fact that the chakra fox was now whole, having regained the half of it's chakara that the Fourth Hokage had sealed away during the war. "How dare you talk to me the Great Kurama the Nine tailed fox Strongest of all the Bijuu" He continued as Naruto yawned earning even more terrified looks from all those watching. "I will show you what happens to insulant little brats like you who dare talk to me in such a manner" The fox finished as it hurled it's fist towards Naruto. Naruto smirked and raised his own arm putting his fist forward at the last second for it to make contact with Kurama's, both of them with matching grins on their faces. All of the onlookers released breaths many of them hadn't realized that they were holding.

"Seriously though what's up Kurama?" Naruto asked the fox as he lowered his arm. "Last time you came here we had to go beat up that stupid Tanuki Shukaku because he was gonna mess up for everyone.

"Nothing like that just wondering if you've entered Sage mode recently?" Kurama questioned sitting back down his tails still swaying behind him, as a concerned look came over his face.

"Not recently but I can if you want me to." Naruto said as he closed his eyes and gathered natural chakra. An orange color appeared on his eye lid as he opened his eyes showing just the bar pupils on orange iris's. "What exactly am I feeling for Kurama, besides we're at peace remember?" He asked again as he closed his eyes and stretched his senses to try and find anything out of the norm.

"Remember brat, the world is much larger than just these nations." Kurama said looking at Naruto. Noticing the confused look on the blondes face he decided to continue. "Isobu senses something odd in the water coming towards the islands that make up the hidden mist village. He said it was eight humans but there was something wrong with them. I think that maybe if you use my chakra shroud you'll be able to sense them from here since we know an exact direction." The fox elaborated causing Naruto to nod before the chakra sprung to life around forming a familiar cloak. He again reached out his senses, this time however focusing them in the direction of the Hidden Mist village.

"There I found them but…. this can't be right can it?" He looked at Kurama as his chakra shroud disappeared. "They have no chakra, like not a little bit but actually no chakra at all. Kurama how can that be?"

"I don't know kid but I recommend you ask that hag of a leader to send you down there." Kurama replied as Naruto sprinted off into the village.

BREAK

The boat finally came to a stop on a sandy beach all eight of its passengers began to unload it. The whole area was covered in a dense fog making it hard to see too far in any direction.

"We'll leave the boat here and do minimal surveillance in order to find a place to make camp." Hadrian said as he threw a rucksack over his shoulder. "I want a spread pattern 15 yards apart as we move forward. Remember scrolls have been haywire so its verbal interaction only." Everyone nodded and began to spread out before they started hiking off of the beach. They headed North since that was the direction of the city they had seen. as they continued to their trek they heard what sounded like laughter in the distance. Hadrian motioned for them to close back in before they made their way towards a sound that by all rights should not have been there.

"I thought this place was supposed to be deserted" Yang said as they came upon a path with a few families walking along it headed back to the beach the teams had just left.

"The drone did only send back still images." Cassius said

"Plus the images were dated to about a week ago." Lucas added to his brothers statement before both of them nodded in unison. One of the little boys in the beach bound group happened to be picking up rocks and throwing them into the bushes. As he continued his seemingly harmless action one of the rocks that sailed out of his hand managed to hit Ruby right between the eyes causing her to fall backwards with a squeal of pain.

"Kenshi did you hear that?" One of the men said turning to his comrades. The other two both nodded causing him to narrow his eyes. "Love take the kids and go on ahead." He said directing the women to leave the area.

"Come on kids lets go your daddies have work to do" one of the women with light blue hair said making the kids nod before they all moved at a more urgent pace.

"Whoever you are come out with your hands up or as ninja of Kirigakure we will be forced to apprehend you." Another of the men ordered as he reached into a pouch on his back and pulled out two kunai. All three of the Kiri nin shifted as they heard arguing from the bushes before 8 people emerged all with their hands raised above their heads.

"We mean you no harm we are simply travellers who came upon this path." Hadrian said as he got down on his knees, the other seven following suit.

"What village do you hail from?" The third nin asked as the stepped towards the group all of them still wary.

"We are not from around here we arrived by boat this morning and were exploring the area." Hadrian informed them causing one of the men to scoff.

"You fool everyone knows that there is nothing beyond the Kōdaina minami no umi". The first man said raising one of his kunai back up to point at them. The second man came forward putting a hand on his friends shoulder to calm him.

"We don't know what you mean by that." Hadrian said.

"If you let us go back to the beach we can show you our boat." Ruby said desperate to help in the situation.

"Fine you will take us to your vessel" The first man said sheathing his weapon before continuing. "If we don't like your answers or we feel like this is a trap we will capture you and take you back to Kirigakure with us." The now eleven person group headed towards the southern beach to find the boat. As they exited the shrubbery however teams HLCN and RWBY both deflated when all they saw was an impression in the sand where their boat had been. they heard the sound of weapons being drawn behind them.

"If you attack us we won't hesitate to defend ourselves." Hadrian said reaching down for a sword on his hip.

"I give you one chance surrender now or we will use force." The first nine ordered as he again drew out his kunai.

"You are the one who threatened us, and as such we will defend ourselves." Hadrian replied looking at his team. "Lucas, Cassius the one on the left." The twins nodded as Lucas drew a short curved sword and attached a chain to it before tossing the other end of the chain to Cassius who attached it to his own straight edged short sword. "Nerama you take the one on the right". Nerama nodded before flicking his wrists causing blades to burst forth from his bracers. Finally Hadrian drew his longsword from its sheath before looking at the man in the middle.

"What about us?" Ruby yelled as the four members of the older team prepared themselves.

"Stay out of the way." Hadrian said as the Kiri nin charged in. Hadrian touched the flat of his sword to his forehead before swinging it in a wide arc to block the strike from the center nin. The force of the blow sent the ninja crashing backwards. He was quick to recover however as he pulled the tanto he wore on his back. He grinned knowing it had been a long time since he had been able to fight another skilled swordsman.

"You asshole" Yang yelled as she crossed her arms with an indignant huff.

"It's no use Yang he is in charge." Ruby said trying to calm her sister down.

"Ruby is right at this point all we can do is watch and provide support." Blake added.

Nerama grunted as he continued to throw punches at the smaller man he was fighting. He knew that speed was not his strong suit but if he could keep the little bastard on the defensive then all he would need was one punch to end it. The Kiri nin continued to dodge and weave around the juggernauts blows careful of the blades on the outside of his arms. It didn't take him long to see enough of an opening to jump back and begin weaving hand seals.

"Suiton: Suidan no Jutsu" The Kiri nin said before expelling a stream of water at Nerama knocking the larger man off of his feet and carrying him into a violent collision with a tree. The nin smirked knowing that the fight was over only for his eyes to widen in shock as Nerama rose back to his feet cracking his knuckles. "How the hell are you still standing?"

"My turn" was all Nerama said before charging the man again this time however he lead off his charge with a blast from one of his bracers. The shot hit the nin in the chest knocking the breath out of him. Using this opening Nerama was able to reach the man grabbing his shoulders and driving his knee into the man's stomach with devastating force. The Kiri nin however exploded into water leaving Nerama baffled as to where he was. His answer came quickly enough as a single kunai came flying at him. He smirked and prepared to block the blade.

"Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu" Nerama's eyes widened as he saw the giant wave of water coming at him. He was even more surprised to see the white clad member of the younger team appear next to him before creating a glyph to move both of them out of the way. The huge flow of water proceeded to annihilate the area he had just occupied forcing water well into the tree line uprooting some of the smaller bushes and trees in the process.

"There was no need for that." Nerama said as he shrugged past Weiss to resume his fight.

"You jerk I just saved you." Weiss yelled at his back as he broke into a run at the water user again, Weiss hot on his heels.

Elsewhere the Denizen twins weren't having much easier of a time. The Kiri nin they were fighting had created a bunch of copies of himself and sent them at the twins taking away their numbers advantage. The two continued to slash through the copies but it seemed like every time they got rid of one two more would take its place. Soon they found themselves back pedaling and being closed in, in a manner which made it impossible for them to use their combination attacks. Lucas cut down another copy only for yet another to land a hard punch to his jaw sending him backwards and yanking on the chain between he and Cassius' weapon causing it to go taught and prevent Cassius from landing his own blow on another copy. Cassius grit his teeth preparing to receive a punch of his own, the blow however never came instead the copy burst into water as a loud bang was heard. Cassius and the recovering Lucas both looked back and grinned seeing Blake and Ruby both having their weapons drawn.

"We'll cover you guys to keep them off of you" Ruby said as she began to lay down fire with Crescent Rose.

"The real one jumped into the trees about 15 meters ahead." Blake said before collapsing Gambol Shroud into its pistol form and unloading her own volley into the sea of water clones.

"Thanks ladies" Cassius said as Lucas also nodded before the brothers left the girls to cover them.

Hadrian would not admit it but he was having a very hard time with the tanto wielding Kiri nin in front of him. The mans smaller blade and faster strikes, plus his higher flexibility were making it so that Hadrian was having a hell of a time landing anything but glancing blows. Most of these were quickly answered with strikes from the man that Hadrian was having a hard time blocking, the many new slices in his worn black duster were proof enough of this. The two continued to exchange swings with their blades occasionally lingering in a short pushing battle. It was in one such struggle that Hadrian was able to point his blade at the Kiri nins foot and squeeze the trigger firing off an explosive round pushing the ninja back and off balance. Hadrian allowed his aura to absorb the brunt of the burst as he charged the man now able to put him on the defensive again. The Kiri nin began to weave his own hand signs. He was a rarity in his home village of Kirigakure being someone whose first chakra affinity was not water. This made it so that he had to work hard to teach himself any tricks he could but this swordsman was going to get one of his favorites.

"Doton: Chikyū no kyūshū no Jutsu" He yelled causing a spike of sand to come up around Hadrian covering him up to his waist and wrapping around his arms before it quickly hardened and stopped all his movement. "Now I was going to take you alive but I've had enough of this." The ninja held his Tanto up above his head about to bring it down on Hadrian.

"No way." Yang yelled as her fist connected with the Kiri nins face before she fired off a round sending him crashing into the sand of the beach, "If anyone kicks assholes ass it's gonna be me" She declared before turning to Hadrian with a smirk. "Aint that right hot stuff?" She questioned with a wink before punching the rock around Hadrian allowing him to move again.

"I had it under control" Hadrian said with a grunt as he moved his wrist around regaining feeling in his hand.

"Yea right your little mud castle says otherwise." Yang shot back readying herself to fight.

"Thanks." Hadrian mumbled causing the grin on Yangs face to grow.

"There they are restrain them all we will take them to the Mizukage." A new voice said as what seemed like hundreds of masked men in identical armor outfits began to emerge from the forest. Hadrian looked around and found the rest of both teams had ended up fairly close together. He made eye contact with Ruby who nodded before collapsing Crescent Rose and raising her hands up. Hadrian acted likewise sheathing Anduril and raising his own hands.

"We surrender." He said earning a grunt of disapproval from the blonde next to him. Had the situation not been so dire he probably would have laughed at the reaction but now was neither the time nor the place for such behavior. "We only acted in self defense. Please take us to this Mizukage you speak of, and I am sure we can work this out." Hadrian grunted as something sharp hit his neck. He looked down to see a needle sticking out and heard Yang fall next to him with a thud. He staggered forward a step trying to redraw his sword only for darkness to claim him.

WOOHOO I did it. thanks again for all the comments and support. I feel really bad for this chapter taking so long but my job is manager of a papa murphys (Best pizza there is) and Halloween is one of the three busiest days of the year for us. I haven't really had a lot of time to type. Hopefully now that that is over with I will be able to return to posting more regularly. Yay teams in action. What will happen when they meet Mei lol that'll be a fun one. Anywho please vote on the poll I have up regarding the OC's poll will conclude in one or two chapters I am not sure when I'll close it yet. More reviews and comments are always welcome. I take any constructive criticism, and flames those are fun so bring those too.

PEACEOUT

Jutsu list.

Kōdaina minami no umi: Vast south sea

Suiton: Suidan no Jutsu: Water release: Water bullet technique

Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu: Water release: Great waterfall technique

Doton: Chikyū no kyūshū no Jutsu: Earth release: Earth absorption technique


	5. Chapter 5

Well howdy there everyone. Thanks for coming back to chapter 5 of Rising Tides. So a couple of people have been saying that I am buffing up the RWBY-verse characters too much, in order for them to stand a chance against the Shinobi of the Naruto-verse. I will admit I am giving them a bit of a boost but I don't think that it is quite as bad as some of you are making it out to be. (It was 8 RWBY's vs 3 Shinobi and it still was barely even. Yes I know that Naruto himself is super OP but even he has his limits, plus if you watched the RWBY season 2 finale tell me that those characters aren't going at ludicrous speeds. Anyway if it is that big of a problem for you I apologize but I didn't feel like writing a story where the ninja's just bulldozed over all of the hunters and whitefang that they may face. I hope that people can understand that, if there is going to be some kind of conflict between the two then I would like both sides to have a, dare I say it 'fighting chance'. Get it it's a pun lol Yang would be proud. In regards to the OC's it's looking like they are going to be sticking around, and even if they weren't they have a few chapters left so I was planning on slowly fleshing them out simply because I didn't want to put out character Bio's for all of them. I will say in regards to their weapons Hadrian uses a broadsword that can also act as a DMR. The twins both have blades that channel different types of dust through them. They hook together with a typical anime expandable chain and use that to double team opponents (Think the demon brothers from Naruto if they didn't get insta killed by Kakashi). Finally Nerama fights with blades that can extend forwards out of his bracers. Anywho on to chapter five. I have all kinds of goodies for my readers in this one.

Rising Tides: Chapter 5

Blake slowly blinked herself awake as the pain in her head finally woke her up. She slowly looked around taking in her surroundings. The last thing she remembered was being surrounded by a bunch of enemies before one of them stuck her with a needle causing her to black out. As she took in her surroundings she realized that she was in a cell. Looking across the way she was able to see her partner. The blonde still lay unconscious on the floor. "Guys is anyone else awake?" She questioned not expecting much of a response.

"So one of you is finally awake." Hadrian responded in his same cold tone of voice.

"Where are we, why are they detaining us like this?" Blake asked

"Apparently from what I've heard from the guards they just got done with some kind of war here so unknowns like us aren't exactly a welcome sight." Hadrian began to explain.

"Has anyone else woken up?" Blake asked as she again looked at her blonde partner.

"Your partner did, and I think is part of the reason we're still down here." Hadrian answered with a small amount of annoyance in his voice.

"What did she do?" Blake deadpanned as continued to stare at the blonde.

"Not quite sure but if I had to guess I'd say she threw a bit of a tantrum. I guess she broke one of the guards noses." Hadrian explained causing the black haired girl to glare at her teammate. The two sat in silence for an unknown amount of time after this as Blake considered her blonde teammate knowing full well about Yang's temper if she felt she was being wronged. "So care to tell me why you cover up being a faunus?" Hadrian asked earning a small gasp from Blake.

"I… I don't know what." Blake stuttered before Hadrian cut her off.

"Don't try to lie to me I saw your bow twitching." Hadrian said before continuing on. "Besides it makes no difference to me you obviously aren't an enemy or else you wouldn't have helped my team." Hadrian said leaning his head back against the wall of his cell. He reached into one of the pockets of his jacket happy to find that they hadn't taken his pipe. He grimaced noticing that he only had the tobacco that was already in the pipe being unable to find his bag containing more.

"What about you why do you always seem so serious?" Blake asked before crinkling her nose when she caught the strong scent of tobacco.

"I have my reasons and I see no need to share them with you." Hadrian quipped before taking a long drag on his pipe and exhaling the smoke in rings. Again, silence reigned between the two as Hadrian continued to puff on his pipe.

"I hide being a faunus because I don't want people to see the cat girl, I want them to see me." Blake explained pulling her knees up to her chest. "I want nothing more than to walk around without fear but for now I can't do that." It felt strange to Blake talking about her faunus status. Something that she had only months ago shared with her teammates, and here she was conversing it with someone she had known for less than a week. She blamed this entirely on her friends efforts to get her "out of her shell" as they had called it. She heard Hadrian chuckle from the other side of the wall she leaned against bringing her back out of her musings.

"Telling me about yourself so that I'll open up, you think you're quite clever don't you?" Hadrian said not removing his pipe from his mouth.

"No if I was clever we wouldn't be here right now." Blake said back as she closed her eyes. Although she knew that wasn't entirely true she couldn't help but think how she could have done better to help their mission avoid this.

"Everyone on my team come from very prestigious huntsman families, I am no different." Hadrian began to explain as he pulled the hood of his coat up over his head closing his own eyes. "The twins fight because they feel they must live up to their family name. Nerama I can't really speak for since he says less than I do but he is a good warrior and will defend his teammates, that is all I ask of him." Another puff of smoke rings issued from Hadrians mouth as he recalled his own childhood, he definitely would not be discussing that anytime soon.

"Well what about you?" Yang asked causing Blake to jump and look at her partner still laying on the ground but eyes open. Hadrian just sent her a sidelong glance before resuming his affair with his pipe. "Hey jackoff I asked you a question" Yang said as a slight tinge of red appeared in her eyes.

"Yang are you ok?" Blake asked the blonde slightly concerned by the fact that the brawler was still laying on the ground. Hadrian looked at her again before blowing more smoke out of his nostrils and turning to look up at the ceiling.

"Hey you moody asshole I'm talking to you." Yang said again her voice getting louder as her eyes turned fully red.

"Yang take it easy we need to conserve our strength if we're going to get out of here." Blake chided her partner

"You should listen to your partner, especially since it doesn't seem like you're in much shape to put up a fight at the moment." Hadrian stated not bothering to look at the blonde.

"Shut your mouth unless it's to tell us why you're such a prick." Yang yelled making an altogether pathetic attempt at slamming her fist on the ground. Truth be told she still had next to no feeling in her entire body, the fact that she was moving at all surprised her.

"I am no prick, if I was I wouldn't have thanked you for releasing me from that mud before." Hadrian pointed out knowing that he was playing to the girls anger.

"Yea but a prick would've said it like it caused him pain which is how I remember you grumbling it out you jerk." Yang shot back still glaring at the older student.

"Yang just leave it alone" Blake interjected. "If he doesn't want to tell us then he doesn't want to tell us and throwing a fit about it wont help us." As she finished saying this they heard stirring coming from other cells as other members of the two teams began to wake up.

"Ugh why does my head hurt?" Asked Cassius as he rubbed his temples his eyes adjusting to the dim light.

"I dunno but I agree your face is killing me." Lucas said back with a snicker.

"You moron we are identical twins your face is the same as mine." Cassius shot back at his brother shaking his head.

"Yea but… wait…. dammit" Lucas said before hanging his head. Not long after his eyes shot open. "Nerama you ok?" His question was answered by a grunt from the dark skinned behemoth. "Yup glad the big guys ok, if he actually used words we might have worried."  
>"Screw off" Was Nerama's response to the verbal jab as both of the twins erupted into laughter.<p>

"I wake up in a dark room and the first thing I hear is those idiots cackling great I died and went to hell didn't I?" Weiss questioned as she shakily stood up and looked at the cells occupied by the Denizen brothers, happily noting the matching scowls on both of their faces.

"So whats the plan now guys?" A groggy Ruby asked rubbing the back of her own head feeling the effects of the knock out poison still leaving her system.

"As a woman it would be rude of me to keep you waiting, even if you are prisoners" A new voice added causing all of the hunters and huntresses in training to look at the woman. She wore a blue dress and had her red hair pulled up into a ponytail at the top of her head with the rest cascading down her back. "Who among you speaks as the leader of your group?" The woman in a blue dress asked.

"That would be myself." Hadrian said as he stood up pulling his hood off meeting the woman's stern gaze with a serious look of his own. "My name is Hadrian Brouer, I am the leader of this expedition, and I must say your treatment of people who are new to your lands leaves something to be desired." He finished with a confident smirk on his face.

"I am Mei Terumi, the Godaime Mizukage." The woman now identified as Mei said with a slight nod of her head. "The shinobi of mine that you attacked says that you claimed to come from across The Kodaina Minami no Umi, but certainly that can't be true since everyone knows there is nothing beyond there." Mei said again leveling a serious look at Hadrian.

"I assume what you mean is the ocean, in which case it is true that we sailed north from our home to come here." Hadrian replied before taking another drag on his pipe.

"I apologize I forgot that if what you say is true then you wouldn't know our traditional terms for many of these things. The Kodaina Minami no Umi means the Vast South Sea. Perhaps this lends credence to what you claim." Mei explained as she walked up and down the row of cells looking at all of the prisoners.

"We have no reason to be dishonest with you. We are simply on a mission from our leader to explore this land since up until now it was considered too dangerous to set foot on." Hadrian explained.

"Your leaders sent you here, if our land is truly as dangerous as you say then why send such a young group?" Mei puzzled as she tapped a slender finger to her chin before continuing. "Either you all are incredibly skilled for your age or he had no intentions of you returning. Given that you held off three of my jonin before they apprehended you I am leaning towards the former option." As she finished her thought she turned to face Ruby who took a step back under the women's authoritative gaze. "You will come to my office where we can properly discuss these things and if I am satisfied with your answers I will let you go."

"What happens if you don't like our answers?" Ruby timidly asked looking at the older woman.

"Then we kill you." Mei said as she walked away causing Ruby to audibly gulp. "Release them and escort them to my office I will be there shortly.

BREAK

"Naruto why did you ask Lady Tsunade to go to Kirigakure all of a sudden." Kakashi asked as he looked at the rest of the group coming with them. Naruto lead the group running to the Hidden Mist Village

"I need to go there to verify something Kurama mentioned to me back at the village." Naruto shouted back before again increasing his speed as he made the run. They were about a day into the journey thinking that it'd take 4 days including the boat ride to reach Kirigakure.

"What did Kurama-san say to you anyway Naruto?" Shikamaru asked wondering how he had gotten roped into running to another village for Naruto to satisfy some curiosity.

"He said that there was something odd coming towards the Elemental Nations." Naruto began to explain. "With my sage mode and Kurama's chakara shroud I was able to sense them approaching but it was only their emotions."

"Only their emotions, What is that supposed to mean?" Kiba questioned.

"During the war when the White Zetsu were running around disguised as everyone the way I could find them was through their negative emotions, but as I have gotten better at sensing things I was able to tell people apart by their chakra." Naruto explained over his shoulder causing no small amount of confusion from his teammates.

"So…. so then why is it odd if that's how you sense them now Naruto-kun?" Hinata questioned as well.

"It's because you can't sense chakra from them isn't it?" Kakashi asked.

"Exactly!" Naruto exclaimed "I doubt that I suddenly got worse at sensing things out and Kurama confirmed it since he and Isobu both felt the same thing. These people don't have any chakra to sense." Naruto explained.

"No chikara? How can that be?" Kiba asked as his canine companion Akamaru barked as well.

"Well when I was talking to Grandpa Six Paths he explained that he wandered the nations showing them how to use chakra that he was granted after the first time his mother was sealed." Naruto rattled off remembering his encounters with the God of Shinobi.

"If there are people beyond the bounds of the elemental nations it's entirely possible for them to exist without chakra altogether since from what you told me about it even we here in the elemental nations didn't have it until Kaguya ate from the Shinju." Shikamaru explained for everyone.

"We'll make camp here for the night and then continue on in the morning." Kakashi said as seven of the eight people in the group came to a halt around him. "Naruto!" he yelled after the blonde who stopped a considerable distance ahead of them.

"We need to hurry Kakashi, theres no time to stop." Naruto yelled back in frustration.

"Not all of us have your stamina Naruto." Kakashi said back causing the blonde to frown. "Besides Hokage-sama already sent a messenger hawk ahead of us to inform the Mizukage that we were coming there." The explanation did nothing to lessen the scowl on Naruto's face but he quickly conceded. Even without Kurama inside him anymore due to his link with all of the bijuu Naruto still had near unlimited access to their chakra. This was largely un-needed due to his own still massive reserves. The group began to make camp with everyone going to tasks that Kakashi gave them. Sai secured a perimeter around them with various ink seal traps. Naruto and Kiba set up tents, while Hinata and Ino unpacked supplies to make food for the night. This task was quickly taken over by Naruto who everyone in the group was surprised to learn was actually a fairly skilled chef. Shikamaru, Yamato, and Kakashi talked with each other about Kakashi's pending election to become the Rokudaime Hokage. This conversation was soon joined by the others as the night went on. Before too long people began to make their way to the tents.

"I'll take first watch Kakashi-sensei" Naruto volunteered as he walked a ways away from the clearing before jumping into a tree and assuming a position to meditate. He planned on talking to the bijuu again, particularly Isobu to see if he had learned anything else about the newcomers. As he sat he drew in natural chakra and quickly entered into Sage Mode so that he would be able to feel anyone approaching while he and the bijuu conversed.

BREAK

Naruto opened his eyes again to see Kurama, Isobu, Gyuki, and Matatabi looking back at him.

"Hello Naruto-kun" Matatabi greeted first. The blonde nodded towards the two tails in response. "I assume you asked us here to discuss the chakra-less ones who landed in Kirigakure?" The giant cat questioned.

"Yea, I wanted to know if either of the swimmers were able to learn anything more about them before they made landfall?" The blonde asked only to receive head shakes from both of the seafaring bijuu.

"I lost track of them once they landed on the main island of Kirigakure" Isobu admitted. "I probably could've followed but I am still a little hesitant to get too close to any shinobi settlements, especially the ones responsible for my containment."

"Theres nothing to feel bad about there Isobu, I can understand how some of you may still be less than keen on the idea of interacting with humans." Naruto said before smiling.

"There was something else that was odd about it though." Kurama said before turning to Gyuki and waiting for the eight tailed bijuu to explain.

"Me and B went swimming further out into the Kodaina Minami no Umi and we felt what seemed like a seal on it like a barrier." Gyuki began to explain.

"A barrier, you mean like we were sealed in here to this continent?" Naruto questioned.

"Exactly. This barrier was huge too, it must've circled the entire elemental nations" Gyuki confirmed to Naruto

"Do you think that Grandpa Six Paths could've been the one to place the barrier?" Naruto asked wondering why the Sage would block them into this one area.

"It's possible." Kurama began thinking outloud. "While he was the Juubi jinchuuriki he lived a full life before he created us from it's chakara. Perhaps he ventured out and in order to protect this world locked us in here." He continued his ponderings.

"Then that means there could be a whole world out there." Naruto said realizing the implications of being cut off from the rest of the world for who knows how long.

"This situation will require the utmost care in how we handle these outsiders." Matatabi said causing all present to nod their heads in agreement.

"Now get out of here runt, the Hyuga girl is approaching you" Kurama said before flicking Naruto in the forehead.

BREAK

"GAH Damn fox" Naruto cursed as he fell backwards out of the tree.

"Na..Naruto-kun...are you o..okay?" The Hyuga heiress stuttered out as she drew closer to Naruto, having seen him fall from the tree.

"Yea Hinata I'm fine." He answered the pale eyed girl grinning even as he clutched his head. "So whats up Hinata-chan?" he asked looking at her making the girl blush and look away.

"I…. I was ho…..I want….. to….that is….." She struggled to say as Naruto looked at the girl and smiled kindly at her.

"Thank you Hinata." He said before he wrapped his arms around the girl causing her to go several shades redder. "I know what you want to say." He began as he released her and looked into her eyes. "I think I finally understand now, and I am sorry. I don't think I can give you what you want Hinata-chan."

"Wha….what do you mean?" She questioned him a sad look coming over her features.

"You are my friend, my comrade, and fellow shinobi Hinata-chan but I don't think I could ever be your lover." Naruto said causing the girl to look down as tears began to form in her eyes.

"We cou… we could be… happy toge…...together." She said with small sobs beginning to escape her making it harder for her to not stutter.

"We could probably make it work, but I think that you love the idea of me. You made me into this perfect ideal that you wanted to achieve, but I am just another person. I have flaws just like everyone else." Naruto explained as he put his hand under her chin raising her eyes to look directly at him. "I will always be there to protect you, and you have my unending gratitude for believing in me, but there is someone who has admired you just as much as you think that you have admired me."

"What? Who?" Hinata asked as Naruto bent down and softly kissed her forehead before turning away from her.

"You shouldn't have to think too hard Hinata-chan. Besides what kind of friend would I be if I took you away from him?" Naruto said before turning back to her and smiling. As he left her view he jumped into a tree out of her sight as she quietly cried to herself, he turned to look at his friend in the tree next to him. "Take care of her dog breath cuz I meant what I said about protecting her." Naruto said with a grin. Kiba nodded to his blonde friend with a grateful smile of his own before he jumped out of the tree and approached Hinata. Naruto just sat there with a smile on his face as he pet Akamaru. The two of them watched from their place in the tree as Kiba finally reached Hinata with the girl throwing her arms around the teen, causing him to wrap his own arms around her smaller frame and hold her to him. Unknown to any of them a shadow clone of Kakashi watched his student with a sad smile on his face.

"Naruto I hope some day soon you will choose to be just a little bit selfish and do something for your own happiness since you continue to give so much for everyone else's." The silver haired ninja said to himself before he poofed out of existence.

The next morning saw the group quickly prepare to set out again. No one seemed to say anything as Hinata and Kiba lingered much closer to each other than they had been the previous day. Once again they took to the trees with Naruto again pulling ahead of the group every so often only for Kakashi or Yamato to reign the blonde back in and get him to rejoin the group. About 5 hours into their travels they saw a hawk circle lazily over their heads before it flew down towards them. The group came to a halt as Kakashi extended his arm for the bird to land on. He quickly removed the scroll from the birds leg and tossed it to Yamato before the bird left his arm and relocated to his shoulder.

"Earlier today eight individuals were apprehended by Kiri Hunter-nin. They fought three Kiri Jonin to a standstill before the Hunter-nin showed up and neutralized them. The Mizukage has requested that we make all haste to Kirigakure now that these unknowns who we had previously warned them about have made landfall for fear that others may follow them." Yamato read the details of the scroll causing the other seven shinobi to grow serious.

"Alright everyone no more dawdling around we need to double time it there." Kakashi said before a familiar call rang out.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu" Naruto called slamming his palm to the ground causing the summon seal to appear followed by a puff of smoke. When the smoke cleared two old toads were seen standing there in billowing cloaks.

"Naruto-chan, why are you summoning us so randomly?" the elder toad Fukasaku asked.

"Hey Grandpa and Granny toad, can you do us a favor?" Naruto asked getting strange looks from the rest of his team.

"That depends on what the favor is." Fukasaku said crossing his arms before his wife Shima yelled at him from behind.

"Pa don't be so mean to Naruto-chan."

"Ma I wanna know what he wants us to do." Fukasaku said back causing all eight shinobi to deadpan as the two honored toad sage's bickered with each other.

"I need you guys to reverse summon us to the capital of Kirigakure. We are heading there but don't have time to waste just running there." Naruto explained causing the elderly toads to look at him with questioning expressions. "Just send a messenger toad there to summon you so that you can call all of us there, and I'll explain everything while we wait." the blonde said with the two immediately noticing Naruto's serious manner regarding the issue.

"Alright Ma you go home and tell Gamanishi to make for Kirigakure and come back here when he's ready." Fukasaku said with Shima nodding in response before disappearing in another puff of smoke. "Ok Naruto-chan what the big rush to get to Kiri?" He questioned rounding on the blonde and pointing at him.

BREAK

It was nearly dusk as a boat full of Whitefang members came to a rest on a beach on what was unknown to them the Southern edge of the Land of Rivers. Thirty plus Faunus all wearing matching uniforms began to unload their equipment. As they did so a small number of them went out to secure the area. After 20 minutes away they returned with 2 families, all of whom had simply come to the beach to enjoy a bonfire. They were quickly bound as the leader of the group a tall muscular man with small fangs sticking out of his closed mouth and grey wolf ears on top of his head considered what to do with them.

"How lucky for us less than an hour into setting up base and I already have hostages." He mused to himself before pulling out a large axe from his back. "Perhaps I should kill one of you." He continued to himself a twisted grin on his face as he heard the women begin to cry and the men shout about how they would defend their families.

"Sir there's another person approaching the camp." One of his subordinates yelled bringing him out of his musings.

"So kill him, we don't need anymore tonight." He ordered with a chuckle "This is probably too many anyway" He said again turning to look at his victims. While he continued to toy with them a group of 8 men ran towards the figure coming to their camp.

"You there turn around or we will shoot you." One of them yelled as they all raised their weapons to aim at the figure. The unknown person however continued to approach them. This caused one of the White Fang lackeys to fire his gun aiming right between where the cloaked figures eyes should be. The clang of metal connecting with metal rang out as the figure pushed a katana back into a sheath on his back, before his hand began to weave signs. The white fang goons looked on in amazement at the fact that this person had just blocked a bullet, and impressive feat for most huntsmen and huntresses. The figure grasped his wrist as electricity began to crackle around his left hand. The figure finally looked up enough to reveal a pair of blood red eyes which caused the White Fang members to freeze in fear, while the figure took off towards them intent on ending their lives.

CHAPTER END:

WOO 4411 Words without the authors notes. So yea I hope that y'all enjoyed the chapter. I'm sure that there will be lots of varying opinions on the events of this chapter so please let me know how you feel. I hope that you'll take the time to review the story. Hopefully people are happy with learning a little more about HLCN since they are in it for the long haul now. I'll update again as soon as possible, till then Keep being awesome.

Adgeless89

Jutsu list

Kuchiyose no Jutsu: Summoning technique.


	6. Chapter 6

Authors note: well howdy everyone. Welcome back to the 6th installment of Rising Tides. So yes the PM's about last chapter were just as wonderfully divided as I could have hoped they would be. That being said it seems like a mostly positive reaction to the last Uchiha being present. It will be explained later. New pairings of Hinata&Kiba are OFFICIAL, as well as Ino&Sai, Shikamaru&Temari. Hopefully people were happy with how I moved Hinata out of the way since I wasn't feeling particularly bloody at the time of writing it. To the people who have PM'd me about this topic, again I say I am not going to change how I balance the powering of the 2 sides because I am not going to write a story where one side absolutely wrecks shop on the other side. I hope that you can put that behind and just enjoy the story. Somehow I highly doubt that, that will be the case though. I apologize to the people saying that the story is spending too much time in the Elemental nations this will be remedied shortly, as RWBY make their way back to Vale. They might even take some friends along hehehe. Possibly a little bit more violence in this chapter and a new encounter for everyone. :D Anywho thanks again for continuing to read. I hope that I can continue to put out a product that will keep y'all coming back.

Rising Tides: Chapter 6

"Oh come on Kiba it's not that bad" Naruto yelled at the canine using ninja as he wretched and let loose another stream of vomit. Hinata stood beside him gently rubbing his back. "Good lord it just isn't stopping." Naruto said unable to look away from the disturbing sight. He was assuming that if Kiba threw up anymore he would start to shrink.

"Naruto." Kakashi called to get the blondes attention. "Not everyone is used to travelling as fast as a reverse summon causes you to move." He said causing Naruto to look at him incredulously.

"We're talking about a guy whose go to attack is to spin himself so fast that he blurs into a vortex." Naruto responded causing others to ponder on the fact of his statement. After a while Kiba had emptied what Naruto thought was several stomachs worth onto the ground the group began to make their way into Kirigakure. As they made their way through the village people would stop to look at the group. Most of the attention being focused on Naruto. Once enough of a commotion had begun over the arrival of the Hero of the War a small group of Kiri Jonin finally arrived to escort them to the office of the Mizukage.

"Chojuro how've you been buddy!?" Naruto yelled as a familiar bespectacled blue haired ninja came into view. Chojuro shifted his glasses up his nose as he turned around to wave at the group of Konoha nin.

"Aha Naruto-san, so Lady Tsunade took our request for help very seriously if you were sent here." The swordsman said as he reached out and bumped his fist with Naruto's own outstretched one.

"Well I asked Granny to send me here because of the ones you captured." At this Chojuro turned serious.

"So you knew about them?" Chojuro asked in a serious tone.

"I was the one who told Granny to warn you about them." Naruto said "Which is why I need to go wherever they're being kept."

"Follow me, they are in the Mizukage's office." Chojuro said before turning to lead them to the captives.

"So Chojuro-san how have things been going here since the war?" Kakashi asked knowing that the blue haired ninja was fairly close to the Mizukage and therefore could probably provide more insight.

"Well same as before, there are still small numbers who would try to subvert Mei-sama and rekindle the bloodline purges" Chojuro said as they continued to walk.

"Really after everything that has happened they would still try to cause that kind of bloodshed?" Kakashi asked before looking down at the ground.

"It would seem that some peoples prejudices cannot be overcome." Sai said with a serious look on his face.

"Ey Chojuro-san when are we gonna look at the new candidates for the open positions with us as the Seven Swordsmen?" A familiar voice of Suigetsu Hozuki called out as the slender teen jumped down from a nearby roof. It didn't take him long to notice the group of Konohagakure ninja with his fellow swordsman. "Ehhh you." he began pointing at Naruto. "You're the one who beat Sasuke aren't you?" He asked making Naruto look down at the ground.

"Suigetsu go round up our hopefuls and take them to training ground 7 I will meet you there as soon as I escort our comrades to Mei-sama." Chojuro ordered causing everyone present to look at him in surprise.

"I see that the confidence you gained during the war hasn't waned Chojuro-san." Kakashi said earning a chuckle from Chojuro. The group continued to walk in silence after this as the capital building came into sight. They entered and strolled past the desk where a receptionist smiled at them.

"Chojuro-sama, Mei-sama is not in her office at the moment but you and your guest are welcome to wait for her there." The receptionist said as she tucked a few stray strands of red hair behind her ear.

"Actually Suji-san I am needed at the training fields. Would you mind escorting our guests to Mei-sama's office for me?" Chojuro asked as he turned and began to make for the door.

"Hai Chojuro-sama. If you all could follow me the stairs are right this way." Suji said as she came around the desk and led them down a hallway to the left. The group began their ascent having to go up to the top floor.

"Ino-san you are a capable sensor type correct?" Yamato questioned causing the girl to nod her head.

"Hai Yamato-taicho. Tsunade-sama informed me that I would need to be ready to interrogate these people." Ino replied earning a nod from both of the Jonin present.

"Ohhh so you're here about the lunatics claiming to come from outside the Elemental nations. I wonder what happened to them to make them so delusional?" Suji pondered allowed. After what seemed to Naruto like an eternity of climbing stairs they finally reached the top floor and began to walk to the end of the small hallway. "Here you are" Suji began pointing to the final door. "Mizukage-sama's office is right here, you all can wait for her inside." She finished with a polite bow before turning to walk down the stairs. The group of Konoha nin went up the door with Naruto being the one to stop in front of it. He took a moment to gather some natural chakra and enter sage mode.

"They are in the office." Naruto said as he used sage mode to feel out the visitors inside the office. He quickly exited sage mode before he reached out and opened the door.

BREAK

"Well isn't this just great?" Yang said as she paced the room. The guards had brought them up to this office and then left them there to wait for the red headed lady from the jail. That was after they had shackled their hands and feet making it impossible for any of them to fight if this lady kept to her word of killing them.

"Calm down Yang, you being upset is making everyone else antsy as well." Blake said from her seated position on one of the many chairs in the room. Ruby also looked at her sister with a sad expression. Weiss seemed indifferent to the entire situation simply wishing that she had her sword.

"I can't calm down my hands are literally tied at the moment, some lady who has no reason to believe what we're saying is probably gonna kill us, and this asshole still won't tell me why he has a stick shoved up his ass." Yang declared pointing an accusing finger in Hadrians direction making the older student turn and look at her.

"I have no reason to tell you any more about myself than I already have." Hadrian replied calmly before turning back to look at the ceiling.

"You didn't tell us anything just that you come from a huntsman family, that's basically nothing." Yang retorted growing angrier with him by the second.

"Woah lay off blondie." Cassius said earning a death glare from Yang

"Yea if he doesn't want to talk what business is it of yours?" Lucas added only to receive a glare of his own which he just shrugged off.

"Perhaps her desire to understand our leader stems from a deeper desire to grow closer, possibly on a romantic level." Nerama said causing the twins to look at him in shock. He sat on the floor in a meditative position his eyes remained closed the entire time as he continued. "It is not hard to imagine that the blonde one grows frustrated because her infatuation driven attempts to get to know Hadrian are being shot down." still the twins looked at their larger teammate before looking to the blonde herself who was sputtering.

"Oh my God it all makes sense." Cassius said

"Oh my God Nerama knows words." Lucas said at the exact same time, as they erupted in laughter.

"You oversized asshole I don't have an infatuation with him." Yang yelled pointing at Nerama again now knowing that all eyes in the room were on her. The twins immediately burst into more laughter as they began a chorus of Yang and Hadrian sitting in a tree. This teasing was promptly silenced as Yang began to to stalk toward her two preoccupied persecutors. Two quick hits to the top of each of their heads and the song morphed into grunts of pain as they both rubbed large lumps already beginning to appear. As the blonde weighed the pros and cons of attacking the bigger member of team HLCN the door handle began to turn. Eight sets of eyes came to rest on the face of a blonde haired boy. He moved into the office followed by an entourage of seven others and one of the largest dogs they had ever seen. Blake instantly hissed at the creature who returned the gesture with a growl of his own.

"So you're the ones from beyond the sea? I am Kakashi Hatake Jonin of Konohagakure. We would like to ask you a few questions." Kakashi said waving his hand before pointing to the various members of his team. "This is Yamato, next to him is Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka and his ninken Akamaru, Shikamaru Nara, Ino Yamanaka, Sai, and lastly Naruto Uzumaki." He finished pointing at the whiskered blonde who had first entered the office.

"I am Hadrian Brouer" Hadrian introduced himself as he stood. He also began to introduce those with him. "The big one is Nerama Otung, next are the Denizen twins Cassius and Lucas. They make up my team, however for this mission we are also joined by another team. Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long." He finished pointing to his own blonde.

"So I hear that you all fought three Jonin to a standstill." Kakashi said smiling under his mask.

"It was simply to defend ourselves, as I said we come from another continent to the south and seek no conflict." Hadrian explained to the shorter man.

"Ino-san if you would." Kakashi turned and gestured for the blonde girl to come forward.

"I need one of you to come and kneel in front of me." Ino said causing all of the prisoners to glare at her. "I simply wish to use a mind reading technique" She began to explain before Hadrian cut her off.

"Excuse us for seeming hesitant but after that first group attacked us for no reason I don't trust the idea of anyone on my team kneeling down in front of any of you. Especially not with us restrained as we are." He finished settling a stern gaze on Kakashi.

"Now now no need to get confrontational." The jonin said waving his hands in front of himself. "This jutsu will be able to tell us instantly if you are telling the truth or not." He explained "If you like I will undo the shackles on the hands of yourself and whomever steps forward so that if you see anything you dislike you may act accordingly." Kakashi offered as he stretched out his hand for Hadrian to shake. Hadrian looked back at his team before extending his hands to shake Kakashi's.

"Fine she can use me" Hadrian said as he knelt down. "Yang I want you to be the one to keep an eye on them for me." He looked at the blonde girl who looked incredibly surprised that he hadn't asked one of his own teammates.

"Me… Why me?" The blonde sputtered as she stepped forward.

"Think of it as a way to earn some of my trust." Hadrian replied as she came and stood next to him.

"Kai" Kakashi said causing the manacles to fall off of both their hands.

"Now I am just going to use a basic mind scanning jutsu to verify what you're saying. It will look like both of us go unconscious so please do not jump to any action when we slump over or you may cause me to mess up on the jutsu in which case there is a good chance your friend will die." The blue eyed blonde said to the violet eyed one causing both her and Hadrian to tense. "It is totally safe so long as I control the link." Ino said to try and calm the two down. "Now please look me in the eyes she said as she put her hand on Hadrian's head causing him to look up at her. "Doukshinjutsu" Ino said before she slumped into Sai's waiting arms. Hadrian also began to slump forward only for Yang to kneel down and catch him.

"So I see that you already beat me here Kakashi-san." Mei said as she entered her office flanked on either side by two hunter nin.

"Hai Mei-sama, and we already have Yamanaka-san verifying the story that they have given you." Kakashi said bowing his head. The seconds ticked into minutes before finally Ino began to stir as she opened her eyes.

"So Yamanaka-san what did you discover?" Mei asked as she took a seat at her desk crossing her hands in front of her and resting her chin on them.

"Mizukage-sama they are telling the truth." Ino said as she weaved a few hand seals. This motion captured the attention of all of the hunter and huntress' in the room. "To omatta Toei no Jutsu" Ino said before projecting a large map that she had seen in Hadrian's memories onto a wall for all of them to see. She walked over to it and pointed a continent to the far northwest of the map. "This is the continent that the Elemental Nations are on. They simply call it the Northlands, and up to this point for whatever reason it has gone largely unexplored by them." Ino then moved her finger to a dot on a continent to the south. "These people come from a place here known as the Kingdom of Vale."

"Why isn't he waking up?" Yang questioned as she noticed Hadrian was still unconscious in her arms. She may not have liked the guy but she wasn't about to let them hurt him.

"Oh I apologize since it is the first time the jutsu has been used on him it may take him longer to wake up." Ino said looking down at the fellow blonde. It was at this point that Naruto stepped forward.

"I don't have a concrete answer yet but after talking with Kurama and a few other bijuu I think that Grandpa Six Paths put a huge seal around the elemental nations. We don't know what his motivations for doing this were but I can't think of anyone else who would be strong enough for something of that magnitude." He said bringing his hand to his chin as he thought.

"So it would seem that you were telling the truth after all." Mei said with a smirk as she raised her hand. "In that case I see no reason to keep these, Kai." As she said this all of the remaining restraints on the two teams fell off. A groan escaped Hadrian as he began to open his eyes. Yang looked down at him with a smile causing him to quirk an eyebrow.

"Oh wow I think Nerama is right she does like him." Cassius said causing the twins to burst into laughter.

"SHUT UP!" Yang yelled as she dropped the still groggy Hadrian so she could stand and point at them. This caused Hadrian to hit his head on the ground earning another groan from the man as he clutched his head. "Oh crap I'm sorry." Yang said as she knelt down next to him again earning another bout of laughter from the twins.

"Well since there is no reason to keep you detained at the moment it has gotten late perhaps we should call it a night and we can resume these discussions in the morning." Mei said as she stood up from her desk. "I will provide you with more comfortable accommodations this time around." She said looking to the eight foreigners.

"Mei-sama is there a training ground I could borrow for a bit, preferably one far from the city?" Naruto asked as the other Konoha nin began to exit the office. The redhead nodded as she threw a key to him.

"This is one of three training grounds for my personal use. Please try no to completely destroy it." Mei said which Naruto responded with a nod before filing out himself.

BREAK

A group of Taki nin surveyed the carnage at the beach. They had been informed of it by a family who had been held hostage at the beach.

"So who exactly did this again?" One of the ninjas said kicking over one of the bodies.

"Dunno they just said some ninja in a cloak appeared and killed them all before he vanished again." Another one said as he knelt down and removed the mask from one of the corpses. What he saw caused him to gasp.

"What is it?" A third Taki ninja asked as he approached. He also looked shocked by what he saw. "Check all of them now." He ordered as he looked at the cat ears on the head of the one he stood over. Slowly but surely the masks came off of all of the bodies showing some kind of animal trait on all of them. Those who lacked it on the face were soon discovered to have tails or other beastly extremities. "Seal a few of them up dispose of the rest. We need to return to the village now." The leader said as he turned away.

Meanwhile in the tree line off the shore none other that Sasuke Uchiha sat and watched the scene unfold. He remembered how it had been easy enough to deal with the lot of thugs. Yet he couldn't help but grimace as he recalled having to exert far more force that he was used to with his Chidori. It almost seemed like there was some kind of barrier around his foes as he fought them. He had noticed with his sword as well it seemed to stall for a second before it pushed through some unknown force before finally cutting down his opponents. He turned away from the sight and headed further into the forest to where he had made camp. He resolved himself to continue and watch the shore. Whoever had sent those men here would more than likely send more in their stead, and he would be here to defend his home.

BREAK

Blake walked through the strange village having been unable to sleep. She was happy to have her weapon back as she saw a sign pointing in the direction of training grounds. She remembered the blonde teen who had come into the office. He reminded her of Sun by his appearance. The unkempt blonde hair and seemingly carefree attitude. There was something different about him though. He seemed far more mature than he acted, and recalling the way he spoke she was sure of that. She walked past several of the training grounds all of them empty since it was so late at night. She noticed that they were counting down in number the further she got and as she entered into single digits a large explosion caused the ground below her to shake. Instantly she drew her weapon and headed in the direction of the explosion. As she finally came upon a ground labelled training ground 2 she remembered what the Mei woman had said about giving the blonde access to one of her personal training grounds. She jumped into the trees and made her way to the center of the training ground. Finally she came upon a clearing, and what she saw shocked her greatly.

In the middle of the clearing were what must have been hundreds of copies of the blonde from before. Furthermore she noticed that every single one of them was shirtless and covered in sweat. All of them circled around and fought a single one. Now Blake was no Yang, she in fact smirked as a number of lewd comments her partner might make went through her head. She was still a 17 year old girl and as such she could appreciate the spectacle that was in front of her. She continued to watch the small war soon catching onto the fact that there was a single one of the blondes that all of the rest seemed to be attacking. Blake was impressed at how he dispensed with the horde skillfully, not wasting motion or allowing for any kind of opening.

"Come on you lazy bastards." He yelled as he continued to pummel the onslaught of himself. This caused a flurry of jeers and foul language to chorus from the copies as they renewed their attack. Blake gasped when she saw a blue orb appear in the hand of one of the copies before he lunged at what she assumed was the original. He continued to fight seeming to not see the approaching copy. A sigh of relief issued from the faunus girl as he turned at the last second, a matching orb in his own hand which he brought up to meet the copies. The resulting explosion and shockwave caused Blake to lose her footing stumbling backwards she grabbed onto the tree for support. Once the shock wave passed she let go of the tree and resumed her perch, only to see that the blonde was gone. "You know it's impolite to spy on people you've only just met." The blonde said as he held a kunai at the girls throat. Before he could continue a katana appeared at his throat as the image of the girl in front of him faded from existence. The blonde soon released a laugh as he scratched his head before he poofed out of existence as well. "You're fast, and obviously also trained as a fighter." The blonde said from above her causing Blake to turn and look, only to gasp at the fact that he stood upside down suspended from the tree.

"How are you doing that?" Blake asked causing the boy to grin.

"Oh this, this is simple most kids learn this to practice chakra control." Naruto said before recognizing the confused look on the girls face. "Ahaha my bad I forgot that you aren't from around here. My name is Naruto by the way." Naruto said extending his hand out in a fist.

"Blake Belladonna." Blake replied as she reciprocated the gesture.

"So why were you watching me?" Naruto asked the girl leveling a serious gaze at her, causing her to look up at him as well.

"I was just going for a walk since I couldn't sleep. I heard an explosion and came to see what caused it." Blake answered honestly.

"Ah I see just admiring my mad skills huh?" Naruto said with a grin on his face. Something about the blonde and the way he smiled just made it so that Blake couldn't help but smile either.

"They are kind of impressive I guess." She said causing the blonde to slump.

"I was fighting an army and kind of impressive is all I get? It's not like you could do better." He declared pointing a finger at her. He knew he had her as soon as she sent a glare his way reaching for the sword on her back. "Oh so it looks like you want to challenge the great and mighty Naruto to a duel." Naruto said with another grin on his face as he dropped down from the branch above her , and landed next to her. "I promise I'll go easy on the newest fan of my awesomeness."

"Shut up." Was all Blake said before she jumped out of the tree and into the clearing. "And I don't need you to go easy on me" She said with a serious look on her face as she drew her drew three kunai and sent one sailing into the air.

"When that one hits the match begins." he said as he shifted into his own fighting stance. As soon as the kunai sunk into the ground Blake shot forward slashing low at the blonde. Naruto raised his kunai in an x to block the strike only for it to phase through the daggers. He flipped backwards to dodge the downward swing from the black haired girl. Blake charged him again swinging across her body from the left. This time Naruto didn't bother to block thinking that she was going to sub out again, this misjudgment was rewarded with a large gash as her blade dug into his arm.

"Oh shit are you ok?" Blake asked worried that she might have really hurt the blonde.

"What this no it's fine. Compared to a whole in your chest this is nothing." Naruto grinned even as he looked to be in pain. In seconds the wound began to heal as the blonde again dropped down into a fighting stance. Blake looked on in awe.

"I see your aura healing you, so why didn't it block that?" Blake asked.

"My what?" Naruto answered back with a confused look.

"Your aura, you know the source of your powers." Blake explained with a deadpan, before she remembered that everything was different up here. She recalled the fight with their attackers the previous day and realized they were doing things that even with the use of dust seemed impossible. "You people don't fight with aura here do you?" She asked as the blonde reached up and rubbed his chin.

"Nope I've never heard of aura before but I can tell you all about chakra." Naruto said as he sat down and patted the ground in front of him. Blake soon followed suit, she had never been one to pass on learning something new. "You go first, what is this aura that you use where you come from?" Naruto asked.

"Aura is our defense where we come from." Blake said before she began to explain all the finer points of aura. Once she was finished he began to explain what he called chakra to her, before the two began to talk and compare the two. It wasn't until Blake finally yawned that the two realized that the sun was indeed beginning to rise. "I should get back to my room before my team gets worried." Blake said as she stood up. Naruto nodded and stuck his hand out again causing Blake to smirk as she bumped her fist with his again.

"So I'll see you around?" Naruto asked as she turned and walked away.

"Maybe." Was Blakes answer as she walked away with a smile.

BREAK

"So are we just going to assume they're dead?" A red headed man in a white jacket asked.

"We need to send a bigger group this time, and I am going with them." A man in a black trenchcoat with a highly decorated grim mask on said as he stepped forward.

END

Yay chapter is done. Nothing too much for Blake and Naruto yet. I don't want them to see each other and instantly fall madly in love. Especially with Sun still in the picture. This brings up my next thought since I got a whopping 5 votes on my poll I wont bother doing another one of those I'll just say if you have strong feelings about what I should do with Sun lemme know in a comment or PM. I DON'T want to kill him since I really like him and Neptune but I already sort of have a plan for it. Anywho hopefully you guys enjoyed the chapter I'll update again soon. PLEASE R&R.

Jutsu List

Doukshinjutsu: Mind reading

To omatta Toei no Jutsu: Thought projection technique


	7. Chapter 7

Hi ho everybody. Welcome back to chapter 7 of Rising Tides. I am glad to see so many people sticking it despite my apparently God awful balancing of the two sides. LOL Oh well they are entitled to their opinions. I personally don't care for Godly strong Naruto fic's, and again for the sake of the story I didn't want one side to demolish the other. So anywho Naruto and Blake have met now so that awkwardness is out of the way. Not a lot to talk about this time so without further ado onto chapter 7

Rising Tides:Chapter 7

It had been one week since teams HLCN and RWBY had been released by the Mizukage. About three days into that week suddenly their scrolls had begun to receive a strong enough signal to call back to Beacon and report to Headmaster had been relieved to find out that the two teams were ok. Finally however it was time for them to return to the academy and fully report on their findings. This is where we found three of the members of team RWBY in their hotel room.

"Weiss hurry up some of us want to shower as well." Yang yelled as she pounded on the bathroom door.

"Shut up you oaf, I'll come out once I am finished." The heiress called back from the other side of the door as she continued to brush her hair.

"Yang calm down you already called the bathroom after her anyway." Ruby chided from a small table that she worked on her beloved scythe on.

"I need to hurry up and shower so I can leave." Yang said looking over at her sister before continuing to pound on the door.

"Just where are you going at this time of night." Weiss asked as she finally opened the door to stare at the blonde.

"Don't tell me I'm the only one who noticed Blake has been out of the room an awful lot." Yang said with a smirk. "I want to see where she's going. Anyone else care to join me?" She asked looking back and forth between her teammates.

"Nope don't care." Weiss said shuffling past the blonde. Seeing as she was already dressed for bed she had no intentions of joining the blonde on this excursion.

"Besides how do we know this isn't some clever way to throw us off your trail?" Ruby asked looking up at her sister with a playful grin.

"Cover my tracks of what? I always spy on you guys." Yang said shrugging off the glare she received from Weiss.

"You WHAT?" The white haired girl shrieked.

"Oh I dunno my dear older sister perhaps you were running off to see Hadrian?" Ruby teased folding her hands and batting her eyelashes at her older sister, causing the blonde to sputter.

"You know come to think of it Yang you were holding him pretty close, even after he woke up in the office." Weiss added mimicking Ruby's action. After all it wasn't every day that they could tease Yang like this.

"Shut up you two. I don't like that jerk at all." Yang declared stomping her foot.

"We never said anything about you liking him so why would you put that out there dear sister." Ruby teased again causing the blonde to sputter before she turned with a huff and walked out the door. As soon as it slammed shut Ruby and Weiss broke down into laughter. Yang however just stomped off mumbling to herself about stupid little sisters and their partners. As she exited the hotel she happened to see the last person that she wanted to sitting on a bench with his back to her. Hadrian had his hair pulled into a ponytail and judging by the smoke rings floating away from him was having at his pipe again. Yang cursed herself as she walked over to the bench and leaned over it.

"Hello Xiao Long, lovely evening isn't it?" Hadrian asked having caught sight of her golden locks out of the corner of his eye.

"Yea just perfect." Yang said back sarcastically causing the older student to turn and look at her.

"Don't let them get to you. You're too young anyway." Hadrian said garnering a confused look from Yang. "I don't date first years. Although if you still have that temper come talk to me next year." He said causing the girl to yell before she turned and walked away. As he watched her retreat Hadrian laughed as he puffed out another smoke ring, even he had a sense of humor. It did help that team RWBY's window was open so he had heard their whole exchange.

As Yang stomped around the outskirts of the village she pulled out her scroll and used it to locate her teammate. Noticing that Blake was in the direction of the training fields she immediately set off to find her.

BREAK

Naruto blocked the first of many strikes coming his way from Blake. He was true to his word about holding back. Even more so after he had intentionally let himself get cut the first night they met up. He had always prided himself on being a good judge of character, but even he liked to test himself to make sure every now and then. He instantly saw through her trick and decided to use that to test the girl, and again his intuition turned out to be right, Sure the girl had cut him, but she stopped herself from doing more damage. It didn't help that the blonde had personally leaned into the blow to see how she would react, but the genuine concern was enough to show him she was a good person. Finally after having had enough of blocking Naruto lashed out with a kick at the girls chest. This of course sailed through the girl as Naruto turned and blocked another strike.

"That's a pretty nifty technique you've got as a seamdance." Naruto said as he dodged and weaved around Blake's blows. He decided to go on the offensive forcing the girl to make more and more copies to escape from him. It didn't take long for his superior fighting skills and speed to catch the girl off guard as he slammed a fist into her gut causing her to cry out. This was worsened when he appeared behind her and kicked her in the back sending her crashing to the ground. Naruto jumped down to where the girl landed kneeling down to lift her up bridal style, before he gently set her down on the ground and sat down next to her. "And that makes six wins for the amazing Naruto." He said grinning over at the girl as she looked away.

"So you said you were going to hold back, but I didn't want to believe it." Blake said sounding upset that an opponent had gotten the better of her so many times.

"Hey don't beat yourself up." Naruto said putting a comforting hand on her shoulder causing the girl to smile.

"Just how much were you holding back?" Blake asked genuinely curious as to how powerful the blonde in front of her truly was. Sure in their talks he had told outlandish tales of his accomplishments but surely they couldn't be true. However after being beaten six times in a row she would admit that he was definitely stronger than her.

"I dunno theres only ever been one person who could really challenge me." Naruto said as he rubbed his chin before laying back to look up at the moon. Blake couldn't help but look at the blonde as he stared up at the sky. He was different from Sun that was for sure. He seemed much nicer, and from what she had seen his concern for the wellbeing of others was astounding. "You're like me aren't you?" Naruto asked looking over at her a sad smile on his face.

"I don't know what you mean." Blake said legitimately confused by the blonde's statement.

"You used to be alone and now you're scared because you don't want to be alone again. I can tell just by looking at you." Naruto said causing the girl to turn away. "You're happy with your teammates but you're different from them somehow." Naruto continued bringing his hand up to turn Blakes face to look at him. Her own amber eyes sad as she looked into his blue ones.

"What would you know about being judged and hated for something you have no control over?" Blake asked looking at the blonde her expression slowly turning to one of anger.

"I know all about that. Remember what I told you about the nine bijuu of this land?" Naruto asked looking at the ground. Blake just nodded her head. "Before the war there was a practice by the shinobi villages where in order to preserve the balance of power, they would take the bijuu and seal them away. However this was when they were thought of as nothing more than monsters. The people they were sealed in were viewed no differently." Naruto said looking back to the moon as tears began to pool in his eyes. "Even children were viewed as monsters because of what was inside of them. Parents told their kids not to play with us, and adults blamed us for loved ones they had lost." As he said this Blake put her hand over his on her shoulder. "At times I thought about giving in and hurting them, but then I always told myself that'd make me no better than what they think I am." Tears now streamed freely down his whiskered cheeks.

"Where I come from there is a group of people who are called faunus. They are often bullied and viewed as second class citizens. All because we are born differently than them. Some places hike up their prices on us or only sell us bad goods. Others just won't let us in at all, and it's considered perfectly normal." Blake explained as she took her hand off of Naruto's causing the blonde to look at her.

"What is so bad about these faunus, what could make people be so cruel to someone like you?" Naruto asked making Blake look at him. "It's not hard to tell that with how you feel plus the fact that you talk about them that you are one." Naruto answered causing Blake to close her eyes with a sad smile on her face.

"Well since we're leaving tomorrow I guess I can show you since I'll probably never see you again." Blake said before she slowly reached up and undid the bow on top of her head. As the two sat in silence Blake looked at the ground before she stood up to walk away. "I should've known you wouldn't be different." She said as she began to walk away. A small gasp escaped her as Naruto reached out and grabbed her wrist to stop her from leaving.

"Is that it? That's all they persecute you for?" Naruto asked causing Blake to turn and look at him. To say that she was shocked would have been an understatement.

"You mean you don't think I'm a freak?" Blake asked as she looked at Naruto totally unsure of what to think about the current situation.

"You're talking to a guy who had a demon fox spirit sealed inside him, whose best friend was trained by a freak who spit snakes out of his mouth, and his other friend transforms into a giant three headed dog." Naruto deadpanned. "A pair of cat ears is hardly going to scare me away. If anything it makes me more angry that someone would judge you for something so unimportant. You're still Blake the super badass that I've gotten to know." Naruto finished looking down at the girl to see her smiling shedding tears of her own. Next thing he knew the black haired girl had her arms around him in a hug. He gently raised his own around her smaller frame with a smile on his face.

"Why is the one human guy able to see that from another continent?" Blake asked with a sad laugh as she looked up at the blonde. He just smiled down at her before he let go of her.

"It's getting kind of late you should probably head back before your teammates start to wake up." Naruto said looking down at her. Blake looked up at him with a smile before she turned to leave. Once again Naruto grasped her hand to turn her around. "I'm gonna talk to Granny Tsunade about sending an envoy to your leaders. I'll make sure that I'm on it so that I can see you again ok?" Naruto ended leaving it for Blake to decide. He had come to really care for the girl over the week seeing that she had suffered like he had. He felt like that gave him a true connection to her.

"I'd like that." Blake said squeezing his hand before turning and walking back to the hotel room.

"You can come out now." Naruto said once he was sure Blake was out of earshot. He turned towards a large bush and drew a kunai.

"What, how did you know I was here?" Yang asked as she stepped out with her hands raised.

"You were really loud plus it doesn't help you that I am sort of a sensor type ninja." Naruto said turning to the other blonde and sending her a stern glare. "Why were you spying on Blake and I?" He asked as he stepped towards her.

"I was just worried about her, that's all I swear." Yang said not backing down from the taller blonde.

"Why would you be worried about her?" Naruto questioned sensing no lie in Yang's voice.

"Blake has never been a very social person. I mean you got her to open up more in a week than she has in almost the year that we've been a team." Yang answered looking down on the ground. "I just wanted to see what it was about you that had her so interested." Yang looked at Naruto as if she was searching for something. "Is what you said true, about being shunned like that?" She asked again turning her gaze to the floor.

"I used to come home to death threats written all over the walls of my apartment that they had broken into." Naruto said looking a Yang. "I just know how she feels and I don't think anyone should go through that alone." He looked up at the moon.

"Well as long as you don't hurt her." Yang said as she smiled at the boy. Naruto turned to her his eyes closed as he scratched the back of his head.

"Why would I hurt her. I was already holding back in our spars." He said knowing that he would never purposely hurt someone. Yang just shook her head. She could tell that the boy liked Blake, and Blake definitely had a thing for him as well. This guy was totally clueless though.

"Take your time I'm sure you'll figure it out at some point." Yang said before she turned on her heels and began to walk away. Naruto was left confused and alone on the training field. He didn't know how long he had stood there pondering what Yang had meant but finally a yawn escaped him, and he decided he needed to get some rest as well.

BREAK

Roman Torchwick was not having a good day. First a large operation had been broken up because another group of kids decided to patrol the dock he was stealing from. Next he had to deal with more angry mutants because some of the White Fang members felt they didn't need to listen to him in Adam's absence. The final straw on his back was that Cinder had sent her annoying little minions to "Check up" on him. This is the reason he was currently smashing one of his cigars in his hand as Emerald walked circles around him.

"You know I dunno why Cinder keeps you around." The mint haired girl said as she continued to circle him. Her partner Mercury leaned against a wall in his makeshift office with a bored expression on his face.

"That my dear is why she doesn't keep you around to think. Remember last time you had that nasty Tukson incident." Torchwick shot back with a sneer.

"Hey we only did that because you were slacking." Emerald fired back. Mercury sighed knowing how easy it was for certain things to rile his partner up. He decided now would be a good time to step in.

"So Torchey are we still on schedule for this next delivery of goods?" he stepped forward putting his hand on Emeralds shoulder to try and calm her down. The opposite seemed to occur as she quickly shrugged his hand off and scowled up at him.

"Yes you little runt. They have already been sent out." Torchwick said walking over to his desk and pulling out another cigar.

"And what about the move to set up a base in the Northlands?" Emerald asked still scowling at the red headed man.

"Cinder knows all about that. Bull boy took off with a bunch more of his freaks to secure it himself. We should be hearing from him anytime now." Roman said as he pulled out his lighter and brought it up to his cigar. Taking a long drag on it he tapped off the end before replacing his lighter and turning to the two unwanted guests. "Anything else you feel like making me repeat?" He asked glaring at the pair.

"Whats the meaning of life?" Mercury asked with a smirk on his face. Torchwick just looked at him before turning back to his map.

"Shut up Mercury." Emerald said turning to look at her partner before she began to walk out of the room.

"She totally wants me." He said looking at Torchwick before he followed after her. Once they were out of the room Torchwick sighed. As he went to turn back to his map, he saw Neo sitting on it her legs crossed and a smirk on her face. "This had better be important Neo or I swear I might kill one of them." He glared at the petite girl.

"Oh you'll like this" Neo said her pink eyes full of mirth. Roman simply waved his hand motioning her to hurry up and tell him. "It looks like the reason we haven't seen them around is because those little girls are one of the teams Ozzie sent up north." The small girl finally revealed.

"Any idea when they're coming back? Torchwick asked, he was smart enough to notice that his operations had gone much more smoothly with those four out of the way.

"Who knows, maybe if we're lucky they'll run into Taurus on the way. We all know how he feels about kitty cat," A smirk played across her features thinking what their "Partner" would probably do to the girl.

BREAK

As the sun rose in Kirigakure the two teams of huntsmen in training found themselves boarding a boat that they had been given to return home. Naruto and Kakashi had come with them to the docks. as they boarded their craft Kakashi produced a small scroll which he tossed to Hadrian.

"Take this to your leader, it is a request for a peace treaty with your people." The cyclops said getting a nod from Hadrian as he turned around and went up the ramp. Meanwhile the RWY of team RWBY look curiously at the sight of Blake and Naruto. Blake stood with her arms behind her back fiddling with her fingers, while Naruto let out a boisterous laugh both of his hands clasped behind his head. As the rest of the team watched the interaction they couldn't help but smile. One at Blakes crush on the blonde and two at said blondes complete obliviousness to her feelings.

"Poor Sun." Ruby said causing the other two girls to look at her.

"Yea he really had a thing for Blake but it seems like this Naruto guy has her completely won over." Yang said shaking her hand crossing her arms.

"Eh this guy seems much less annoying than that vagrant." Weiss said with a nod of her own head. All three girls looked back to the pair just in time for Blake to look at them. She glared at her teammates causing all of them to duck down with Ruby letting out a surprised yelp.

"So I hope you do come to Vale. I'd love to show you around." Blake said looking at Naruto's smile a faint blush coming onto her cheeks.

"It's a promise." Naruto said beaming down at the black haired girl. "And, I never go back on my promises." He said before surprising her and wrapping her up in a hug. The action didn't go unnoticed by Kakashi who smiled for at his student. She may be from a different continent but if anyone could overcome that it was none other than Konoha's number one most unpredictable ninja. Even as he was finishing this thought a poof of smoke in front of him caused him to look down and see A fragment of Katsuyu looking back up at him.

"Kakashi-san, Tsunade-sama asked that I find you and tell you and your team to head to Takigakure immediately."

"What is happening in Takigakure that needs such an urgent response." Kakashi asked looking at the slug.

"I will brief you and your team on the way." Katsuyu said as a piece of her broke off and crawled up Kakashi's arm.

"Alright team looks like we're heading to Taki in order to do some cleanup of some sort." Kakashi said causing all those present to nod. Naruto turned back to give Blake one more smile. "Let's go Naruto." The jonin said, instantly Naruto's face turned serious as he nodded turned and took off after the others.

Blake turned and walked towards the rest of her team who were now standing to watch the group depart. as she took her place next to her partner leaning on the railing of the boat Yang looked at her and smiled. "So got a thing for blondes I see." Yang teased causing Blakes cheeks to flush again.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Blake said looking anywhere but her teammates. It was going to be a long voyage home.

BREAK

The group of Konoha nin jumped from tree to tree heading to the port of the western edge of Kiri's main island.

"So Katsuyu why the rush to get to Taki, and why wouldn't you just tell us on the docks." Naruto asked looking at the fragment of the slug on Kakashi's shoulder.

"There was another group of the non chakra users found dead on a beach on the southern coast of Takigakure." Katsuyu answered the blonde before continuing on. "They were armed and hostile taking several civilians as hostages before an unknown ninja showed up and killed them." Everyone looked at each other. It was true that several undocumented missing ninja, it was more alarming that their fears of invasion were already coming true.

"What can you tell us as far as Taki's report on the attackers?" Kakashi asked the slug knowing that he would have to question Naruto on the subject as well. He knew this was going to be a difficult task since he certainly thought of the black haired girl as his friend and therefore would be less likely to divulge anything that could be used against her. He was forced out of his musing however when Katsuyu began to speak again. "All of the attackers wore matching uniforms and weilded identical weapons. The strange thing was however that they all wore masks and underneath them all of the invaders had some form of animal trait. Some of them had ears of various beasts while some had tails, or claws." The slug explained causing Naruto to inhale sharply, an action that did not go unnoticed.

"Naruto what can you tell us about this since it seems as though you recognize these people." Kakashi said looking back at the blond whose face turned serious before he began to explain.

"Everyone that came here was a faunus." Naruto began earning glances from everyone before a nod from Kakashi told him to continue. "Over there, there is a group of people known as faunus. They are individuals who are born with animal traits. Blake the girl with the bow on her head is one of them. She wears the bow to hide a pair of cat ears." He said his face taking on a slightly angry appearance.

"Why would she cover up kitty ears?" Ino asked as she pictured herself with a pair of cat ears. before mumbling to herself. "Oh yea I could totally pull that off."

"Because over there the faunus are treated the same as jinchuuriki are here. Most people just ignore them but there are some who target them and stores that won't sell to them." Naruto said now gritting his teeth. "The ones on the beach are from a terrorist group called the White Fang. They are an all faunus group who seeks to make the world better for faunus, but they go about it all wrong. They kidnap, steal, and vandalize stores and companies who don't sell to them or use faunus labor." Everyone in the group now wore serious expressions. "This group has no connection to Blake and her group, in fact one of their jobs is to stop the White Fang and prevent them from harming innocents." Naruto said as he thought about the amber eyed girl.

"So their criminals have come here no doubt probably trying to set up a hideout far away from their authorities." Kakashi pondered out loud before again turning to Naruto. "Naruto what can you tell us about their fighting styles?" He questioned.

"I don't know much other than that they don't have chakra so they can't use jutsu of any kind. They do have something unique to them though. She called it aura it is sort of like a force field. They unconsciously project it around themselves depending on the person and how strong their aura is they can defend themselves from different strength attacks." He nodded trying to recall everything Blake had told him about their fights. "Another thing that varies from person to person is something called a semblance. It's sort of like a kekkei genkai in the sense that it is a power unique to them. Sometimes family members can have similar semblances though. The only other thing I can think of is that most of them fight with projectile launchers they call guns. They shoot super small things called bullets faster than any shuriken or kunai can be thrown."

"So we need to be on guard for those, anything else you can tell us Katsuyu-sama?" Kakashi asked looking back to the slug.

"They had communication equipment in their boat that was still transmitting it said something about back up coming." The slug said as the group of ninjas jumped out of the trees and walked towards the docks where their boat was waiting for them. With any luck they would be to Taki in a day and be able to help them defend from these new attackers. As they boarded the boat Naruto felt a familiar tug on his senses and quickly found a place to sit down and begin to meditate.

BREAK

Naruto looked around him as he saw Kurama, Isobu, and Matatabi looking back at him.

"So whats the latest guys?" the blond asked as he looked to Kurama.

"Something very disturbing has been found in the water." Isobu said as he held his hand for Naruto to bump fists with. As soon as Naruto made contact he saw images of strange black fish with what seemed like masks over their heads and fins.

"Grimm?" He said to himself causing the bijuu present to look at him. "Blake one of the ones who came from the lands to the south told me about them, they attack and kill everything. They seem to live for nothing else." Naruto explained to them.

"Well I have never seen things so small attack so ferociously. The little bastards took quite a few bites out of me before I finished killing them." Isobu roared as he looked at Naruto. "Are there more of these creatures?" The giant turtle asked.

"Yes there are all kinds of them some that are land based, others that fly, and apparently more that are in the sea." Naruto explained

"For something to attack Isobu like this, is a threat we must take very seriously. It takes you humans using your strongest attacks in order to do small amounts of harm to us. The fact that a few dozen of these creatures could maul him like so is most disconcerting." Matatabi said looking to the other bijuu.

BREAK

Adam walked off of the boat as several White Fang members ran up the shore in front of him. This time instead of one boat he bought ten with him. Several of the Paladins that the White Fang had "acquired" Also walked up the beach. Over three hundred soldiers all armed and supported by his new toys would certainly be able to establish a nice hideout here. He had barely finished this thought when a figure burst out of the tree line and began to lay waste to his men. The figure wore loose blue pants. tape covered his ankles until a pair of sandals covered his feet. A grey shirt that was partially unzipped covered his upper body. In addition to this he wore a cloak which shadowed his face from view. As he stood up several White Fang members charged him with their weapons drawn.

The figure ducked under the sword swing of the first one to reach him before shooting his leg out catching the faunus in the head. A sickening snap echoed as the kick broke the poor faunus neck, his body falling limply to the ground.

"You are not welcome here." The figure said before he dodged another strike, this time lashing out with his fist fracturing several ribs of the next attacker to reach him.

"You aren't too bad, I'll take care of you myself. The rest of you continue to move up the beach." Adam ordered as he advanced on the figure. Once he had closed the distance to about ten feet he assumed a fighting stance with his hand on the hilt of his katana. The figure did likewise grasping the handle of his own katana.

"You won't survive this, and I'll just deal with your men once I finish you." The figure said looking up two red eyes visible.

"Oh good I always love it when they think they stand a chance." Adam said before he shot forward drawing his sword to slash at the figure. The person quickly drew his own sword to block. The two pushed against each other before they broke apart and began to block and slash at each other. After one final swipe the two jumped apart looking at their opponent. Adam was going to enjoy this fight.

END

Hey all hope you enjoyed this 7th installment of Rising Tides. I will continue to post as quickly as possible on the story. Reviews are appreciated along with constructive criticism. I take flames too because they make me giggle. I have an idea for how to deal with Sun but I am interested to see if you guys have any ideas. Like I said I like him and don't want to murder but I am not above character blood on my hands hehehe. If you have any suggestions leave them for me in a review. Otherwise, until next time stay awesome.

Adgeless


	8. Chapter 8

Howdy everyone. Welcome back for chapter eight of Rising Tides. Ehe So now the plot thickens. Why can the grim hurt the Bijuu how will this affect the greater story. I guess hopefully you'll keep reading to find out. Anywho hopefully y'all will enjoy the chapter. Naruto and the group meet an old friend? On with the story.

Rising Tides: Chapter 8

Adam stood panting as he looked across the beach at his opponent. It had been a long time since he had fought someone who could keep him interested. Across from him the figure whom after slicing off the tie of his cloak he had revealed to be a black haired boy around 17 years old looked back at him. His red eyes began to spin around again as he slashed at Adam's midsection. Adam blocked the slash before slashing out at the teen. Again the sound of blades clashing continued to ring out until the two swordsmen jumped apart again.

In the distance the sounds of explosions could be heard as the shinobi of Takigakure fought off the invaders. Faunus and ninja's clashed blades as the cries of various jutsu rang out in the air. Adam noticed that the raven haired teen he was fighting would often go out of his way to protect the natives defending them whenever one was in peril as much as he could. This proved advantageous for the bull faunus as he had little regard for the well being of his own men. Pawns came and went, and with treatment of faunus not seeming to get any better Adam knew he had a near endless supply of weak minded fools who could be persuaded to take up his banner. He looked on as the red eyed boy began to weave his hands in strange signs that he had noticed other natives doing before they would attack. Adam was instantly on guard as the teen brought his hand to his lips shouting. "Katon: Endan no Jutsu." Adam jumped back and began to dodge as the teen shot a large volley of fireballs at him. Adam dodged the fireballs, and used the opening created to propel himself at his opponent. As he closed to within striking distance, suddenly the teen disappeared. He coughed as he felt a pain in his chest looking down to see his foes katana protruding from his rib cage.

Meanwhile further up the beach the shinobi of Taki had finally begun to turn the tide against the Whitefang invaders. Since Takigakure was not one of the five great shinobi villages, they had ninja's who used all sorts of attacks. As the giant robots they were fighting continued to lay waste to anyone who attacked them. Some of their stronger Doton users were finally able to start trapping the legs of the machines. From there it was simple enough to load them with explosive tags until they blew them up. With their biggest assets now falling, the Whitefang fighters also began to find themselves on the defensive. Few of them were actual warriors with one out of ten possibly having battle experience or training of any kind. Those that did found themselves to be no match for the shinobi fighting to protect their homes. Once the last of the Paladins finally exploded the faunus quickly began to lose heart and turn tale. Many of them were running on to boats but others came to a stop as they looked at the battle their leader was in.

Adam blocked another flurry of swings from the black haired teen he was fighting. He knew however that his aura was nearing zero, as more and more of the swings resulted in cuts all over his body. The bull faunus fell to one knee as he looked at his opponent approaching him. He knew at this point there was little chance of his survival. He lurched forward attacking the raven haired boy, only for said boy to easily block all of his strikes before retaliating with one of his own. Adam barely jumped back in time to avoid the strike. Not before the boys blade sliced through his mask cutting it in two and causing the pieces to fall from his face. Blood trailed down from his forehead where the sword had still made contact, running into his eyes making it hard for him to see. He looked up at the boy as he raised his sword above his head. There was a brief pause as the two made eye contact with each other. Adams deep brown eyes looking into the red eyes of the man who defeated him.

"What is your name?" Adam asked looking at his opponent.

"Why do you care, your life ends here." The teen answered back venomously.

"I atleast want to know the name of the person who beat me." Adam replied his brown eyes meeting black ones.

"Sasuke Uchiha." Was all Sasuke said before with one quick motion he relieved Adam's shoulders of the weight of his head, causing his body to slump forward limply. Cheers erupted from the Taki ninja's as they again charged the boats full of their would be invaders. Sasuke held his arm up causing them to stop behind him as he looked at the boats leaving the shore. Suddenly chakra began to swirl around him as an ethereal purple figure sprung into existence. It drew back the bow on its left arm before launching several arrows of black flames at the boats.

Several of the White fang members jumped out of the boats as the black flames overtook them. Most however were unable to avoid their touch and began to burn up. Those who had escaped washed up on the shore where some of them quickly surrendered. Others chose to try and fight only to be cut down shortly thereafter, As the faunus surrendered they had their masks taken off before their hands were bound. The survivors were led to Takigakure for questioning. As this was happening the Jonin in charge of the defense looked at the back of the last Uchiha.

"I thank you for helping to protect our village." He said before bowing his head. Sasuke simply turned to look at the man.

"I was never here." Was all the Uchiha said before he disappeared.

BREAK

Two days later the group of Konoha ninjas continued to voyage to Takigakure. They had seen the area where the battle had been fought. Kakashi noticed that given the size of the force that attacked they shouldn't have been able to repel them so easily, so the decision was made to go check the village itself. It wasn't until they were within a mile of the village that they finally encountered Taki ninjas. The group was escorted into the village with their hosts refusing to answer any questions.

Once they finally made their way inside Taki the jonin leading them began to discuss the repulsion of the invaders.

"They had these strange armored suits that someone was inside." One of the Taki nin said explaining the Paladins to the Konoha nin.

"When you attacked them, did you notice that your attacks didn't get through to them?" Naruto asked wondering how the Aura Blake told him about worked for different people.

"Now that you mention it, there were some people who took direct hits from swords, kunai, shuriken, and various jutsu that appeared unscathed. While others took much less damage before succombing to the expected injuries." A second Taki nin said as he brought his hand to his chin to ponder.

"Any way Shibuki-sama had us keep all of the prisoners alive. After you meet with him you can go visit with the freaks." The first Taki nin said causing Naruto to stop and face the man with a glare. The bigger man instantly froze under the blondes intense gaze. "What have you seen them? They are unnatural with their weird animal parts." The man tried to explain only causing Naruto's eyes to narrow.

"Where they come from they're ostracized because they're born differently. Just like me or any of the other jinchuuriki were before the war." Naruto reached up and grabbed the man's jacket yanking him down to eye level. "They didn't have a choice so don't think that they did something to put them beneath you." Naruto tossed the man back before turning and walking away. The second Taki nin helped pull his friend up, both looking highly confused before they resumed walking to Shibuki's office at the center of the village.

As the Konoha shinobi entered his office Shibuki looked up a scowl on his face. This instantly changed into a grin when he saw who it was.

"Naruto-san I'm glad to see you again." He stood up and came around his desk to shake Naruto's hand before turning to Kakashi and shaking his as well saying. "Kakashi-san glad to see you in good health." Kakashi simply eye smiled at the young leader. "I assume you're here to see the prisoners we took from the invasion." Shibuki said turning serious.

"That and if possible I would like to send a team to look at some of these giant suits your men mentioned." Kakashi said earning a nod from the younger ninja.

"Absolutely I have some of my tokubetsu jounin heading out there soon your team is certainly welcome to join them." Shibuki said earning another eye smile from Kakashi.

"Hinata, Kiba, Yamato, and Shikamaru you four will go look at the battle site find out as much as you can. Ino, Sai, Naruto, and I will go see what we can find out from the prisoners." The first four nodded as Kakashi turned back to Shibuki. "When and where will your team be meeting?" He asked.

"Twenty minutes from now, at the main gate. Give them this, that way they'll know I sent you." Shibuki stated as he walked back around his desk before opening a drawer and retrieving a scroll which he proceeded to unwrap and write in. "An Inuzuka and a Hyuga will certainly make my mens task easier." He smiled as Yamato came forward and took the scroll before his team followed him out the door. "The rest of you can follow me to where they are being held." Shibuki stood up from his desk and escorted them out into a hallway.

"Has your village seen Chomei since Fu's death?" Naruto asked causing Shibuki to look at the ground.

"No I'm sure he's in the surrounding forest since our sensor ninjas can feel him every so often but we just let him alone. And as far a Fu goes, I am still sorry that she had to die that way." Naruto looked at Shibuki with a confused expression. Shibuki himself noticed this and decided to continue. "It was right before your team helped us that Fu was chosen to seal Chomei into. At first I was just like everyone else even though I knew the girl beforehand. After the bijuu was put into her I lost sight of her and only saw the monster and the weapon that the elders saw her as. After you and you team came though I changed my mind and tried to be nicer to her." Naruto looked down a sad expression on his face.

"You were like Sandaime-jiji was to me." Shibuki smiled a sad smile as he nodded.

"I thought that if I treated her like a person others would follow my example. I guess that was just wishful thinking." Shibuki clenched his fists as he came to a stop slamming one of them into a wall. "When Akatsuki came demanding her I tried to stop them but the elders just handed her over thinking that they would keep their word about not attacking the village. I was there when the told her and the way she looked at me, she just looked so broken." Naruto put his hand on Shibuki's shoulder surprising the older ninja as he turned and looked at the blond. "I should have stopped them, or at least put up more of a fight. It was awful all of a sudden they came in and took her. Kisame Hoshigaki and Itachi Uchiha, they just appeared and that sharky freak just threw her over his shoulder. She didn't even fight it." Shibuki punched the wall again before he regained his composure and began walking again. He couldn't bring himself to look at Naruto for fear of what the former jinchuuriki would think of his actions, so what the blonde said next caused him to freeze.

"Atleast you tried. You know if you spent any time with her it was probably the happiest she ever was. I know thats how it was when jiji was the only one who noticed me." Naruto said a sad smile on his face as he again approached his friend and put his hand on his shoulder.

"Thank you Naruto." Was all he said before he began to lead them down a large staircase. None of the Konoha shinobi had any idea how far down they went on the staircase. This was made more apparent when Kakashi mentioned something about the simple genjutsu to confuse people trying to rush in or out of the prison. Once they did reach the bottom Shibuki made them look away as he wove the appropriate seals before placing his palm on the door causing it to lurch open. The group followed Taki's leader to another door which he again opened before turning to look at them. "I made it so that you can close the doors after you leave but I have business I must attend to." Shibuki wove his hands together before slamming his palm to the ground with a shout "Kuchiyose no Jutsu" A puff of smoke cleared revealing a small owl looking up at them. "This little guy is Eule if anything happens simply tell him to and he'll come and alert me immediately."

"Thanks Shibuki, we'll let you know if we find anything interesting." Naruto said as he raised his fist. Shibuki returned the gesture as the two smiled, before the leader of Taki made his exit.

BREAK

The eight members that made up teams HLCN and RWBY sat on the boat as they continued to sail back to Beacon academy. Yang for once found herself in the uncomfortable position of receiving a large amount of teasing from both her teammates and the Denizen twins in regards to the crush she "totally didn't have" on HLCN's leader. Even when she tried to turn the teasing onto Blake she had been the only witness to their late night meeting, so she always found herself shortly back on the defensive.

"So how long until we reach Vale?" Ruby asked as she collapsed Crescent Rose from it's sniper to it fully compact form.

"At this speed we should be there in about 2 days. A day and a half if we're lucky." Blake said not looking up from her book.

"Why have you already grown so weary of our company little one?" Nerama asked not opening his eyes as he sat in a meditative position. All four members of team RWBY had been surprised to learn that the big man was quite personable once he deemed you a worthy comrade.

"Nah I'd never grow tired of someone as nice as you Okie." Ruby said with a small giggle as she noticed the twitch to Nerama's eye.

"Please refrain from calling me that." The larger man said.

"Yea Ruby we just got him to actually acknowledge us don't ruin it by being childish." Weiss scolded her partner.

"Hey red did you notice anything when you scoped out around us?" Hadrian asked from his perch on the front of the boat, as he blew another smoke ring out.

"No I didn't see anything approaching." Ruby said between coughs as a larger portion of said smoke ring blew right into her face. "You know if you're going to do that could you atleast go to the back of the boat so its not all blowing back at us?" Ruby asked still coughing.

"Hmmm, I suppose I could but then that'd put me next to your sister and I don't want to risk setting her off and having her burn the sails." Hadrian replied as he inhaled another mouthful of smoke. He had to admit the tobacco that he had gotten from the Northlanders was easily some of the best he'd ever smoked. He blew the smoke out trying to put it up into the air so that it would flow over his fellow team leader.

"You know I can hear you right?" Yang yelled from the rear of the boat, an indignant look on her face. Hadrian smirked not wanting to acknowledge the girl. "Hey asshole I said I heard you." She shouted again.

"Man she's so desperate for his attention." Cassius said with a laugh.

"I know it's kinda sad isn't it?" Lucas asked before the two of them devolved into another fit of laughter.

"I don't care about his stupid attention. You know what screw all of you." Yang said with a huff before sitting back down crossing her arms. When Yang opened her eyes a few minutes later she noticed the worn condition of the book her partner was reading. "Hey Blake how long have you had that book, it looks like its in pretty rough shape." She asked as her partner looked at her over the cover before mumbling something incoherent. "What was that Blakey I didn't understand you?" Again she was met with an incomprehensible mumble of an answer. This spurred the blonde to scoot closer to her partner and examine the back cover of the book. She could make out the name of the author and snorted. "Who would call themselves a Sexy Toad Sage"? Yang asked with a snort causing Blake to finally sigh and lower the book to look at her partner.

"It's a book Naruto gave me." Blake said as she immediately looked away when she noticed the grin on Yang's face.

"Oohhh wow you barely know the guy and he's already giving you gifts?" Yang teased noticing a slight pink color on her partners cheeks.

"It's nothing like that Yang." Blake tried to defend.

"Oh really then what is it? How many nights did you meet up with him anyway?" Yang asked causing Blake to glare at her.

"How do you know about that?" The faunus girl asked causing Yang to lean back away from her.

"I was worried one night when I woke up and you weren't in the room so I used my scroll to find you. I swear I wasn't spying." Yang explained her half truth waving her arms in front of herself.

"It's nothing like that, I couldn't sleep the first night we were there so I went for a walk. While I was out I happened upon him training. After we had a practice fight, we started talking. I went back there every night after that so we could practice and talk." Blake explained a faint blush appearing on her cheek recalling the night that Naruto gave her the book.

FLASHBACK

Naruto sat in the middle of the clearing waiting for the black haired girl to come back. Soon he felt her presence approaching, this being the fourth day they would be meeting he had become quite familiar with it. I wasnt long before he reached into his holster drawing out a kunai to block her strike, not even bothering to open his eyes.

"How can you always do that?" Blake asked slightly agitated as she jumped back and assumed a fighting stance.

"I told you yesterday I can feel you approaching." Naruto said standing up and turning to look at her. she wore a slightly different outfit tonight consisting of black shorts with a black sash for a belt. This was tied so that all of the excess material fell around her left leg. A white button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up covered her upper body. She still wore her bow and had the bigger cleaver sword on her back, black ribbons still wrapped around both of her wrists.

"But no one can ever sense me back home." Blake said miffed at how easily he detected her. The two made eye contact as Naruto drew out another kunai which he tossed into the air. Like every night it sailed high above them as they both evened out their breathing. As the kunai hit its apex and began to fall Blake collapsed her katana into it's pistol form. The kunai embedded itself in the ground signalling the beginning of their "match".

Naruto rocketed towards her fist cocked back to strike her face. His attack simply passed through the after image she left as she jumped into the air and unloaded several shots at the blonde. Naruto instantly backflipped out of the way causing bullets to pepper the ground he had just occupied. He turned to her and launched the kunai he held into the air in her direction, before weaving the handsigns and calling out Kunai Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. Suddenly the one kunai multiplied into a hundred all sailing towards the black haired girl. Blake created another clone of herself which she used to propel herself higher into the air as she connected the ribbon on her wrist to the hilt of Gambol Shroud which she quickly begun to swing around. The flurry of motion created began knocking the kunai away from her as she continued to swing the weapon. Naruto grinned as he used the distraction to create forty shadow clones which quickly began to henge into kunai stuck in the ground blending in with the large number that began to litter the ground after being blocked by Blake.

"You're gonna have to try harder than that Naruto." Blake called out as she created another shadow again launching off of it before it faded from existence This time however she shot towards Naruto pulling her weapon back. He reached back and pulled out a Chokuto which he brought up into a defensive position. As Blake neared the blonde she swung her arm forward launching Gambol Shroud at him. Naruto quickly blocked the blade smiling as it hit the ground to his left.

"I could say the same to you Blakey." The boy shouted back a grin still firmly on his face. His smile however disappeared when Blake tugged on her ribbon causing the weapon to spring back into the air. As it sailed passed the girl she flicked her wrist again causing its pistol to fire sending it rocketing at Naruto even faster than before. Blake finally landed as the weapon clashed with Naruto's sword again. This time Blake was not content to simply let the blonde block it. She began whirling it around lashing out at the blonde over and over causing him to truly go on the defensive. As Gambol Shroud shot towards him again Naruto decided that he had had enough of the long distance combat and lived up to his unpredictable nature. He blocked the blade of the weapon once again, this time however he had already begun to reach for it. Blake let out an audible gasp when instead of coming back to her the ribbon she wore went taught. She looked at the cause only to see Naruto grinning back at her.

"What're you smiling at?" She asked annoyed that the blonde had found such a weakness in her weapon.

"Surprise." Was all he said before several puffs of smoke revealed clones of the boy. Blake did not like his clones, that much she knew for sure. While her clone if you could even call it that was useful for distractions, Naruto's were on a whole different level. She remembered that unlike hers his were solid, and so were their hits. She gasped before quickly recovering grabbing the cleaver on her back she prepared to defend herself slashing out catching the first three to approach her right through their abdomen causing them to vanish. Naruto wondered if she had forgotten that he held the other end of a ribbon wrapped around her wrist. Deciding to experiment he waited until she was raising her sword to block a strike from one of his clones before he gave a vicious tug. Blake who had been so caught up in fending off the dopplegangers yelled when she felt her shoulder pop as her arm was yanked causing her to fall off balance. "Shit." Was all Naruto could yell as he began to dispel his clones. This didn't happen fast enough to stop one of them throwing a kunai which caught Blake in the abdomen.

Naruto instantly rushed to the girl babbling apologies and asking if she was ok. Much to his surprise she sat up taking her hand off if her stomach to show only a bruise and a small cut where the kunai had hit her.

"I'm fine Naruto, it just stings a little bit." Blake said as she moved her sore shoulder around. Had it not been for her aura she was sure her shoulder would have been completely dislocated. She would have been fine with the kunai as no major organs would have been hit, but it would have bled a lot.

"Shit I'm so stupid. I never should've pulled on the ribbon." Naruto said before again beginning to apologize causing Blake to smile.

"It's fine Naruto really. I shouldn't have forgotten you still had my ribbon." Blake said, as much as she hated to admit it. "Besides my aura helped protect me so I'm just a little sore." She explained looking down at the cut which was already beginning to scab over.

"So then shall we call it a night?" Naruto asked as he picked the girl up, eliciting a startled squeak from the girl.

"Sure just put me down." Blake said looking away from the boy so that he wouldn't see her blushing. Naruto complied as he walked over to a tree and set Blake so she was leaning against it. The blonde took a few steps over before settling against the tree to her right. He began to look up at the stars seemingly lost in thought. Blake couldn't help but look at him. She was no closer to figuring out the puzzle that was Naruto than she had been their first night talking.

"Why are you looking at me, is there something on my face?" The blonde asked turning his head to her with his eyes closed and a confused look on his face.

"No i just don't get you." Blake said honestly.

"Huh I never thought I was that confusing." The blonde said looking back up at the stars. Blake couldn't help but notice how much more mature he looked like this.

"That's because it's you." Blake said earning a pout from the blonde causing her to smile.

"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?" He asked turning so that he was on his knees at her side.

"Oh nothing." She said turning away smiling again when he humphed and resumed his place against the tree. The two sat in a comfortable silence for several minutes before Naruto turned to look at the girl. "What Naruto?" She asked not looking at him.

"Who named you?" He asked very bluntly causing her to look at him with her own confused expression.

"I don't know." She said looking away. "I would assume my parents or someone in my family but I've never met any of them." Blake said as she looked up at the stars.

"So you're an orphan like me?" Naruto asked looking over at her before continuing. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to bring anything like that up." He followed her gaze up to the stars.

"No it's fine I never knew any of my family. I would like to find them some day if they're out there though." She said before she turned to look at Naruto. "What about you who named you?" She asked causing the blonde to reach into one of the pouches on his waste. He produced a small book that looked to be in fairly rough shape.

"The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi?" Blake read aloud looking from the book to Naruto. A sad smile came over his face as he also looked at the book.

"My Godfather Jiraiya the Toad Sage wrote this book. Before I was born my parents liked it so much that they decided to name me after the main character Naruto, in the hopes that I would grow up to be strong and strong willed like him." Naruto said as a tear slid down his whiskered cheek.

"I'm sorry Naruto." Blake said resting her hand on his shoulder causing him to look at her and smile.

"No need to worry Blake. Jiraiya was one of my best teachers and besides I got to talk to my parents about it later." This caused Blake to tilt her head sideways as she looked at him.

"So then you were given up then if you lived as an orphan but met your parents later." Blake questioned causing Naruto to scratch the back of his head.

"Man I wish it was that simple." Naruto said looking back up to the sky. Blake simply looked at the book in his hands deciding not to pry any further about what he meant.

"Do you mind if I borrow that?" Blake asked looking back down at the book causing Naruto to look down at it too before his grip tightened around it. The motion did not go unnoticed by Blake who looked up at his face. "It's fine if you don't want to I can see that it's important to you." She said looking back up at the sky, noticing that it was beginning to get lighter. She was surprised when she felt Naruto take her hand off his shoulder and set it down on top of her other hand the book between them. She looked up at him in confusion as he smiled at her.

"Just promise me you'll take care of it okay?" Naruto asked causing her to smile and nod her head as he stood up and vanished in a swirl of leaves. She looked at where he was in time to notice a note floating down in the leaves. She deftly reached up and snatched it out of the air turning it over to read 'Same time tomorrow? I'll be here'. She smiled again and nodded to herself.

FLASHBACK END

"So you were with him every night?" Yang asked as Blake finished a slightly censored version leaving out much of their deeper conversations. "Go Blakey." Yang said nudging the faunus with her elbow causing Blake to let out an exasperated sigh. she definitely wasn't going to get much reading done.

BREAK

As Naruto walked up and down the row of cells he looked at the people inside with a sad expression. Most of the ones he talked to had the same story. They didn't necessarily hate humans, they just didn't see anything else that was helping the faunus besides the Whitefang. As he approached another cell he looked at the man inside it. He couldn't be any older than his mid twenties causing Naruto to frown.

"Are you going to torture me?" The man asked looking at Naruto with stark determination in his amber eyes.

"No I'm not here to torture you. Naruto said causing the man to look away with a snort obviously not believing the blonde. "I want to help you all if I can." Naruto said this time the man turned to glare at him.

"And why would you want to help a dirty faunus human?" The man asked earning a return glare from Naruto.

"Because I understand why people where you're from hate you." The prisoner scoffed at Narutos admission as the blonde continued. "And I think it's beyond stupid to judge you for something you cannot control." This caused the man to turn and look at Naruto as he chose his next words very carefully.

"You make it sound like you've met faunus besides us. But given how our captors reacted I was under the impression that faunus didn't exist up here." The man stated looking at Naruto and noticing the three whisker like marks on his face.

"Well you aren't wrong." Naruto said as he kneeled down to the mans level. "There are no naturally occurring faunus up here but you aren't the first one I've met." Naruto explained as he looked at the man. The prisoner turned to sit his legs criss cross as he looked at Naruto now genuinely curious.

"And what did you think of this faunus that you met?" He asked the blonde before him. Naruto looked at the ground as he began to think about Blake again.

"Well she was an orphan like me, but she seemed happy when she was with her team. She was smart, strong, and very pretty. I can't imagine why anyone would mistreat her because of a couple of cat ears on her head." Naruto explained remembering seeing the feline appendages and being unable to equate them to a reason for the suffering she endured.

"So you didn't think she was a freak?" The prisoner asked looking at the blonde for any hint of dishonesty.

"What me think Blake a freak, come on you're talking to a guy who summons toads, whose friend runs around in green spandex, and whose other friend can transform parts of his body into octopus tentacles. A pair of cat ears is hardly disturbing to me." Naruto explained again as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. The prisoner looked slightly perturbed by the blonde before he recalled the name.

"Wait a female cat faunus named Blake? What was her last name?" He asked desperately looking at the blonde on the other side of the bars. Naruto looked at the man who suddenly looked desperate to know Blakes name.

"Her name was Blake Belladonna. Why did you know her?" Naruto asked as the man stood up and pulled his hood off revealing two black cat ears on top of his head, one of them having a large chunk missing out of the side of it. Naruto stood up aswell the two of them roughly the same height as Naruto took in his full appearance. The amber eyes, black hair, pupils slightly longer almost looking like slits, and now the cat ears on his head. Naruto took a step back looking at the man. "Who are you, and how do you know Blake?" He asked stepping forward as the man chuckled.

"My name is Cheren Belladonna, and Blake is my sister." He said the two looking eachother in the eyes.

Break

Shikamaru scowled as they looked at the remains of another one of the giant machines that had attacked the Taki ninja. The technology in them was mind boggling and had to be several lifetimes ahead of anything in the elemental nations. The jounin they had been sent with had recovered enough parts to roughly piece together two of the behemoths. Yamato had climbed into one of the ones that was in better shape noting the many screens and displays that he couldn't comprehend.

"Whoever controlled these things had to receive at least a basic level of training." The mokuton user said as he looked at the things.

"That may not be true." Shikamaru said causing all eyes to fall on him. "The non hostiles we encountered in Kiri had handheld devices that functioned similar to the displays in here. It's safe to assume that this technology is the norm where they come from so it would also be safe to assume that it would take little training for anyone to control one of these. That doesn't mean that people couldn't be trained to handle them better than others though." Shikamaru finished crossing his arms in front of him.

They had heard several stories from Taki nin about how the machines fought. These things were not to be messed with. He also had to think that they were capable of producing these in staggering numbers. Since the ones they fought were criminals he imagined that the proper governments of the lands to the south probably had a frightening amount of these things at their disposal. He looked to Kiba who along with Akamaru was sniffing the air.

"Kiba what is it?" Shikamaru asked not wanting to deal with any straggling attackers.

"Hinata-chan we have two approaching from the northwest can you scope them out?" Kiba said looking at the girl. Hinata nodded before activating her Byakugan.

"Two figures, one of them is carrying the other. One male the one he's carrying is a female." She said as she proceeded to evaluate them further. She quickly gasped and covered her mouth causing her team to look at her. Two figures both wearing cloaks walked out of the forest. Stopping just short of the Konoha group.

"Please I need your help." The male said as he placed the girl in his arms down on the ground.

"YOU!" Kiba exclaimed as he finally recognized the scent of this individual. "You're supposed to be dead." He yelled pointing at the hooded figure before he sprung placing himself and Akamaru between the unknown and Hinata.

"He means no harm." One of the Taki nin said causing the Konoha group to look up in surprise.

"Yea he helped us fend off the invasion. Without him we'd probably still be locked up in our village under siege." Another Taki nin called out.

"Who are you and why do you need our help?" Yamato said stepping forward. "Whats wrong with your friend?" He asked as he formed a wooden cage around the person. The unknown cradled the other body bringing it up and lowering it's hood showing a young girl that all of the Konoha shinobi recognized instantly.

"Sakura?" Shikamaru said looking at the unconscious pinkette in front of him. Something was wrong though. She looked young, far too young. She looked like how Shikamaru remembered her before the academy. That would mean she couldn't be more than ten years old.

"I need to speak with Uzumaki and she needs help." The figure said as he raised his hands to his own cloak pulling it down. Staring back at them were the black eyes of Sasuke Uchiha.

Holy hell that took a long time to write. I knew exactly how the chapter was going to play out and most of the fight between Adam and Sasuke was written as part of last chapter but I decided to move it to this one. Just every time I tried to sit down and type this my brain went numb. I apologize for the long wait. Hopefully you all enjoyed the chapter. I know, I know I am certainly reaching with some of it. I feel like the Fu thing made sense. Some of you might think it was pointless but I liked writing it, plus it's my story so :P. But yea Blake has a brother, and Sasuke has some explaining to do. But hey you'll just have to wait till next chapter to find out more. Please stay tuned for the next chapter of Rising Tides.

Adgeless89

Jutsu/Translation list

Katon: Endan no Jutsu- Fire release: Flame Bullets

Eule: Owl (German)

Cheren: Black (Bulgarian)


	9. Chapter 9

HI HO HI HO onto chapter 9 I go. Welcome back everyone. I hope that you enjoyed the last chapter. I'd assume by the fact that you're reading this, you at least tolerated it. So yea again Blake has a brother now. I think that it'll make things fun and he may play a decent part in the story. So we'll finally see some more of the RWBY characters in this chapter now that they'll be getting back home. As always I hope that you enjoy this chapter. Be sure to leave lots of reviews and standard protocol Flames welcome.

Rising Tides: Chapter 9

The sun had set in the land Of Takigakure as four Konohagakure shinobi stood in the office of Shibuki, the leader of the Hidden Waterfall Village. Kakashi looked at the forms of his two students wondering how they could be standing before him. The young form of Sakura sat asleep in one of the chairs while Sasuke stood next to her in a protective manner. Naruto looked at his friends also wondering why they were alive.

"So Sasuke, care to enlighten us in regards to this whole situation?" Kakashi asked causing his black haired student to look at him.

"Naruto do you still trust me?" Sasuke asked causing Naruto to make eye contact with him and nod his head. Both teens had serious expressions on their faces. "Good then look into my eyes." Sasuke said as he activated his Sharingan before both teens froze.

BREAK

Naruto and Sasuke stood across from each other. Everything around them stood frozen an odd red tint to it. Both were familiar with the world of Tsukiyomi and its many uses in torture of the opponents psyche. Sasuke watched as tears streamed down his blonde friends face.

"I killed you." Naruto said a growl in his voice recalling the sight of Sasuke dying on the ground. He also pictured Sakura's blank eyes after Sasuke had killed her. "How are you here, I watched both of you die." He looked back up at Sasuke who looked down, unable to make eye contact with the blonde.

"I know, that must've been hard on you." Sasuke said finally raising his eyes to look at Naruto. " I guess it's a good thing that Obito was cautious about us after he died." Sasuke said causing Naruto to look up at him in confusion. Sasuke raised his hand fist stretched out a gesture which Naruto reciprocated. as soon as their fists made contact the scenery surrounding them began to change into an empty plain. before him Naruto saw two figures that he recognized well. The one of the two was none other than Sasuke Uchiha. across from him stood the late Obito Uchiha. the two looked at each other as Obito grimaced.

"So one of you died in your fight with Kaguya I see." Obito said causing Sasuke to turn away.

"No we defeated her." He answered back before again turning to look at Obito. "We resealed her and broke the Infinite Tsukuyomi freeing everyone." Obito looked surprised by what the younger Uchiha was saying.

"If that's the case then why did you die.?" The elder of the two asked.

"Me and Naruto had our final fight, I lost." Was Sasuke's answer. Obito simply nodded.

"So the curse of hatred has still continued." Obito asked looking disappointed that they had been unable to resolve their problems.

"No it is ended. I realized Naruto was right and chose to let him win." Sasuke said causing Obito to look at him again. This time a smile came back over his face. "I'm going back again aren't I?" Sasuke asked earning a nod of the head from Obito. "Theres no way to stop it is there?"

"I'm afraid not I set up the Izanagi before I died. You have my left eye, and Naruto has my right eye. I set it incase Kaguya was able to kill either of you, you'd still have a chance to beat her." Obito explained as Sasuke closed his eyes and smirked.

"Well I guess that I'll be able to help Naruto and see if his way will really work." Sasuke said, as he pondered to himself for a moment. "Although there is something I have to ask. Can you bring anyone else back or is it just the two of us?" Sasuke asked earning a puzzled look from the older Uchiha.

"I suppose I could try but I have to ask who and why?" Obito asked Sasuke who again took on a slightly sullen expression as he recalled Sakura's lifeless eyes.

"When I realized that Naruto had the right way I also realized that I had no place in it. So in order to make sure that he won the fight I took something very dear to him away." Sasuke explained his actions.

"You killed the girl, Sakura I think her name was?" Obito asked earning his own nod in response from Sasuke. "I see, yes her and that Hyuga girl he was very protective of both of them. Well I can try but there is no guarantee that it will work since I originally set the technique for just the two of you." Obito explained to the younger Uchiha. Sasuke simply nodded his head as he began to feel the familiar tug on his consciousness signifying his return to the world of the living.

"So it would appear that I am back." Sasuke said as he opened his eyes finding himself laying by the destroyed statues in the valley of the end. He looked around himself before sighing in disappointment. He knew that it was a long shot but he supposed that Sakura had been left behind. He activated his Sharingan, then his Mangekyou Sharingan. He even went so far as to look down at his left hand and see the crescent mark from the Sage of Six Paths still present prompting him to focus more chakra and feel the familiar tingle of the Rinnegan a activating in his left eye.

"Help me, please someone help me." He instantly froze when he heard the voice call out in the distance. Instantly Sasuke jumped off in the direction he heard the call from. He quickly reached a large pile of rubble that he heard the voice coming out from under. Sasuke quickly sliced the larger boulders on the top of the pile.

"Cover your head." he said as he began to push the pieces out of the way until he had uncovered a little girl that he knew very well.

"Sasuke-kun?" The timid voice of a ten year old Sakura Haruno said as she looked at Sasuke in confusion.

"Sakura? Is that you?" Sasuke asked equally confused in regards to her current state. The pink haired girl climbed out of the pile of rubble and launched herself at the black haired teen. Sasuke caught the girl in surprise as she began to cry into his chest. "Sakura what happened to you?" Sasuke said, as he tried to comprehend his current situation. He could only assume that the state of his teammate was due to her resurrection by Izanagi. There was so much about the jutsu that was not understood to him, and he had no one to ask as the last Uchiha. As he continued to ponder the predicament he found himself in he failed to realize the tick mark that appeared on the small girls forehead as she wound her fist back and brought it crashing down on the top of his head. The surprise caused him to drop the girl who landed on her feet and pointed at him as she began to shout.

"YOU KILLED ME YOU ASSHOLE!" more profanities continued to spew from the mouth of the pint sized pinkette before Sasuke was finally able to regain his bearings. He knew that was one of Sakura's chakra enhanced punches. The only reason it hadn't knocked him unconscious was because with her smaller size came a smaller amount of chakra to put into the attack. After several minutes of the continued verbal onslaught the small girl finally finished panting heavily from her rant.

"Sakura how much do you remember?" Sasuke asked almost afraid of the answer.

"I remember everything, including you FUCKING KILLING ME!" Sakura began finishing in another yell. Sasuke shrugged his shoulders at the accusation.

"I had to make sure that Naruto would win." Was all the Uchiha said looking away from the girl. He felt extremely uncomfortable making eye contact with the girl.

"Make sure Naruto won what?" Sakura asked looking at the Uchiha.

"I wanted him to win and kill me. I thought I had no place in this new peaceful world. So to break the cycle of hatred I accepted that he had the answer." Sasuke explained to Sakura causing her to furrow her brow.

"So if he killed you after you killed me how are we both here?" Sakura asked causing Sasuke to chuckle to himself.

"Obito." Was all he said causing Sakura's eyes to widen. She remembered reading Uchiha scrolls that had been locked away after the massacre while studying under Tsunade.

"Izanagi?" She asked earning a nod from Sasuke.

"He had one eye set for me and one for Naruto incase Kaguya killed us. I guess it remained active after she was sealed. I asked him if it could bring you back as well, and I guess that this was the side effect." Sasuke said looking at the small girl.

"So what now?" Sakura asked looking at Sasuke. "I'm guessing you won't be returning to Konoha?" she finished causing him to look up at the sky.

"No I have no place there. After I drop you off I'll wander around and look…"

"Oh no you don't all those times you left me behind. I'm done with that. I am going with you Sasuke-kun." The girl declared stomping her foot.

"I suppose I can't change your mind?" He asked looking back at her, as she shook her head. "Fine but we're leaving now." Sasuke said as he wove the hand signs before crying. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu." Just like that a large hawk appeared in front of them in a puff of smoke. Sasuke knelt down allowing Sakura to climb onto his back. "Hang on Sakura." Was all he said as he jumped onto the hawks back before the bird took to the air. The memory continued to play up until the first White fang group attacked. Then Naruto saw images of Sakura becoming sick. She continued to get worse to the point where Sasuke had to take her into Taki for treatment. He saw the second invasion, and couldn't help but clench his fist for how Sasuke shot Amaterasu at the retreating faunus.

As the room they stood in came back into focus the two stared at each other. Sakura coughed causing all both Naruto, and Sasuke, as well as Kakashi to look at her still sleeping form.

"So you have no idea what's wrong with her?" Naruto asked Sasuke as they continued to watch the young girl.

"No, one day she started coughing but we ignored it thinking it was something common. It wasn't until she started coughing up blood that we came to Taki seeking 've done their best to stabilize her, But either herself or Tsunade would be the only ones that could help her." Sasuke explained as Kakashi turned to look at him.

"So then what are your intentions now Sasuke?" Kakashi asked causing the black eyed teen to look at him.

"I know what you're thinking Kakashi. You don't need to worry I wont be causing any problems. I wanted Naruto to win and I would gladly be with my family if it weren't for Obito preparing an Izanagi incase things went wrong with Kaguya." Sasuke said causing Kakashi to relax a little.

"I want to see this world, since I think I would get a better picture now." Sasuke said looking back over his shoulder at the still sleeping Sakura. "Plus I have to take care of her." Sasuke said earning a confused look from Naruto.

"Wow bastard I never thought I'd see the day that you cared for someone other than yourself." Naruto said causing Sasuke to glare at him. He knew it was true though. For some reason having Sakura reminded him of Itachi. Now it was his turn to be the older brother, and that was a job that he would not fail.

"We're going back to Konoha with you." Sasuke declared causing both Naruto and Kakashi to look at him in surprise. "Shibuki-san if you need help again you know who to contact." Sasuke said before he turned to look at Sakura one more time and continued talking. "But for her sake it's time for us to go home."

BREAK

Ruby Rose was finally jostled out of her nap as the airship teams HLCN and RWBY road in began to descend to the ground. Once it finally came to a halt the two teams looked happily at their school as they began walking towards it. Once they cleared the landing pads they saw the familiar forms of Professor Ozpin and his assistant Glynda Goodwitch awaiting them.

"Glad to have you all back safely." The grey haired man said before he took a sip of his coffee.

"Seeing as it is almost 10 P.M. we will meet tomorrow morning in the Headmaster office in order to debrief on the mission. Until then you are all dismissed." Glynda said tapping something into her scroll as Ozpin took another sip of coffee.

"Get some rest ladies and gentlemen, from the minor report Mr. Brouer sent back while you were enroute you have certainly earned it." Ozpin finished as he scanned the groups one by one looking for any injuries. The two teams walked away heading to their dorms. Glynda turned to Ozpin before looking back at her scroll to the message that Hadrian sent them earlier that day. "It's no use worrying over Glynda. They don't appear to be aggressive toward us." Ozpin said looking over at her.

"You and I know that but who can guess how James will react to this news? Or the council, no doubt they'll all want to make yet another show of force." Glynda said picturing Ironwood sending his ships at these people. The thought was enough to put a scowl on her face. She looked up at Ozpin as he rested a hand on her shoulder.

"I'm sure that they will understand that such an action is at the moment both completely unnecessary, and profoundly unwarranted." Ozpin said allowing his eyes to follow after his students as they disappeared into the school.

"You may think that, but you know James's propensity to overdo things." Glynda said looking down at her scroll with a scowl coming onto her face. A picture of none other than James Ironwood appeared on the screen causing her to huff. Ozpin quietly chuckled to himself as the device earned him a glare from his assistant, which he easily ignored raising his glass to his lips. "Good evening James to what do we owe the pleasure?" She asked stressing the last word.

"Ah Glynda, I'm glad you answered. I'm assuming Ozpin is with you as well?" Ironwood asked sounding slightly disappointed.

"Yes James I'm here. What can we assist you with this evening?" Ozpin asked as he turned himself so that he was beside Glynda, and could be seen by the devices camera. Instantly on the screen Ironwood appeared a serious look on his face.

"I was wondering if you had a chance to look at my suggestions for the Vytal Festival?" Ironwood asked. Ozpin gave a curt nod sipping his coffee.

"I did glance at them, and I must say I disagree with your idea of having so many weapons present." Ozpin answered causing Ironwood to scowl.

"There will be a large civilian presence, Ozpin we must be prepared to defend them if things should turn ugly."

"And we will be James. Or did you forget that we have a whole school full of hopeful huntsmen and huntresses that will be able to help." Ozpin said making Glynda turn to look at him.

"You would really trust a bunch of children with a task like this?" Ironwood asked as Ozpin again sipped his coffee.

"I would hope that the situation would not arise, but is that not what we're doing by even teaching them in the first place?" Ozpin shot back at his friend. "I am not opposed to you bringing support but I feel as though the presence you would like to have would send the wrong message. Especially if we do have visitors from the Northlands in attendance." Ozpin finished his explanation.

"That reminds me of the other thing. The council wants your report of what your students learned about them." Ironwood said as he glanced down at his screen.

"I have already forwarded you my students preliminary report on the matter, and I will have copies to all of you when I more thoroughly debrief them tomorrow." Ozpin said earning a nod from Ironwood.

"Well I am glad to hear it. Have you ever seen anything like it, They channel dust like abilities without the use of dust itself." Ironwood commented as he brought his hand to his chin as if pondering.

"Is there anything else you wish to discuss James?" Ozpin asked breaking his friend out of his musings. Ironwood simply shook his head. "Well then until next time my friend." Ozpin said with a small nod of his head before the screen went black.

"You know he's going to bring his full force here." Glynda said a small amount of annoyance in her voice.

"Of course he will, but that is just James. Besides we both know that he means well." Ozpin said as Glynda turned to head into the school leaving Ozpin to think alone. "I wonder if they have coffee?" He thought to himself a smile on his face as he raised his glass.

Meanwhile in the kingdom of Atlas James Ironwood turned away from his screen to face a small figure in his office.

"So you're sure that these fools of yours will follow the orders?" Ironwood asked causing the figure to nod.

"Of course they will." A sultry female voice said as Cinder Fall stepped out of the shadows, Mercury and Emerald flanking her on either side. "You have played your part well General, unfortunately you seem to have fallen ill. Good thing we can synthesize a vocal copy of you to handle communications, since no one will be seeing you again." She said her eyes narrowing dangerously at Ironwood.

"What do you mean, I thought we had a deal?" Ironwood said glaring down at the smaller woman.

"I am altering the deal, too bad you won't be around long enough for me alter it anymore." Cinder said as the designs on her dress glowed before she shot a blast at Ironwood propelling him across the room, before he crashed into a wall. The bigger man slowly rose to his feet glaring at the small woman, a trickle of blood running down his face. He began to pull the glove off of his right hand, as Cinder's two minions moved in front of her. Mercury taking a loose fighting stance, and Emerald drawing her twin sickles. Ironwood raised his right arm revealing a robotic hand which quickly retracted to be replaced by a long Sabre. Emerald rushed at him spinning and swinging both weapons in a wide arc. Ironwood had a bored expression on his face as he brought his sword up to block himself. Utilizing his greater size he deftly swung the blade sending the smaller girl flying backwards. After this he began to wave his Sabre blocking kicks from Mercury, who even with the discharge of bullets from his greaves had no effect on the old general.

"Really you send the rugrats to fight me?" Ironwood asked as he swung his blade again sending Mercury sprawling to the floor. Emerald again vaulted across the room firing shots at Ironwood, who began blocking them. As Emerald closed the distance Ironwood raised his arm as the blade folded up revealing a large barrel. He fired a large blast at Emerald catching the girl by surprise blasting her back across the room once again. The older man didn't have time to dodge however as another blast from Cinder sent him in the opposite direction. As he stood up leaning heavily on the wall he glared at the woman causing her to smirk at him.

"Goodbye General." Cinder said as she raised her arms and sent another blast, larger than either of the previous ones at the man. An explosion rang out as onlookers saw a blast escape from the top floor of a large office building. Several security guards began to rush to the office they knew was the Generals. Cinder looked at the first one to arrive as he looked at the whole in the wall. "No one comes in. The General had an accident but medical staff is here to help." She said causing the guard to smirk and nod his head before he left the office and began relaying orders. Cinder looked over to Mercury as he helped Emerald to her feet. The mint haired girl quickly shrugged out of his grip causing him to smirk. "Well this was a fun trip wouldn't you say?" Cinder asked as she sauntered past her two minions who quickly fell into stride behind her.

BREAK

After leaving Takigakure the group of Konoha ninjas, plus their extra's had arrived at the gates of the village. Cheren Belladonna looked at the gates with an awed expression. The gatekeepers Izumo and Kotetsu waved happily as they saw the group approaching. Their smiles however vanished when they saw the extra people approaching the gate with them. Izumo and Kotetsu instantly shot forward their faces becoming serious as one of them landed on each side of Sasuke.

"Izumo, Kotetsu stand down no one here is a threat." Kakashi said earning strange looks from the two recently promoted jonin ninja's. Sasuke made no move to defend himself in all of the commotion he simply made sure that Sakura who was sleeping on his back was out of harms way.

"Kakashi-taicho he's the enemy." Kotetsu said glaring at Sasuke.

"Plus he's supposed to be dead." Izumo added in. Both jonin were instantly thrown backwards forcing them to flip and land on their feet. They both had shocked looks on their faces as they looked at Naruto. The blonde had planted himself between them leveling a stern gaze at the two.

"You will not touch him. Tell Baa-chan that we're heading to her office." Naruto said before he turned to walk away.

"A little dramatic don't you think dope?" Sasuke asked smirking at the blonde.

"You know I like to be the center of attention bastard." Naruto shot back a grin on his own face.

"Still you didn't have to cause such a ruckus moron."

"Psh are you kidding I almost henged some clones so I'd have more of an audience asshole."

"That might have woken up Sakura idiot."

"Ya know I still can't get used to you actually caring about someone emo." The rest of the group followed behind listening to the two friends take verbal jabs at each other. Cheren couldn't help but wonder what kind of madness he had gotten himself into. He quickly resolved himself though, if it meant he could see his younger sister again he would put up with the blonde psychopath and the black haired sociopath. After several minutes of walking the group finally arrived at the office that still belonged to the Fifth Hokage Tsunade Senju.

Inside the room a woman nearing fifty six sat behind a large desk. Despite her age her appearance was that of a twenty year old. She took a large swig from a sake bottle only to be interrupted by the door being flung open and an overly exuberant voice she knew all too well ringing out.

"Granny we're back, and before you get mad about my guest I can GAH!" Naruto said only to be cut off by the now empty sake container making contact with his skull at an alarmingly high velocity. This caused the blonde to fall back out of the room in front of his company, an indent of the sake brand logo painfully apparent in the center of his forehead.

"Kakashi why is this moron barging into my office?" The blonde woman yelled out. Cheren could only blink at the odd display. Kakashi walked ahead of them into the office his hands raised defensively in front of him.

"My apologies Hokage-sama you know how excitable he is." Kakashi explained earning a smirk from Tsunade as well as several others in his own group.

"Now what was that idiot talking about his guests?" Tsunade said leveling her gaze on her successor causing him to flinch ever so slightly.

"Well you see we made a discovery or two on the mission. You can all come in." Kakashi said causing Cheren to walk in first and bow.

"Good day my name is Cheren Belladonna." Cheren said meeting the busty womans gaze. He watched her eyes as they lingered on his cat ears before returning to his face.

"It is my pleasure to meet you Cheren, and welcome to Konohagakure no Sato. Kakashi I can't help but think that there is something else you want to show me." Tsunade said looking from Cheren to Kakashi. At this point Naruto began to stir before he kicked back up onto his feet pointing angrily at the woman.

"The hell was that for Granny? You could have killed me." Naruto yelled at her.

"Maybe if you would let some manners into that thick skull of yours I wouldn't have to punish you." Tsunade yelled back pointing her own finger at the younger blonde. "Now tell me brat, what did you bring that would make me any angrier at you?" Tsunade questioned as she stood up from her desk and walked around it. "You?" Was all the woman said when she saw the supposedly dead Sasuke Uchiha in her office. She dropped into a fighting stance and launched herself at the black haired teen, only for Naruto to again intervene catching her wrist. She noticed that he had his sage mode activated as he looked at her with a serious gaze.

"Hokage-sama there is no need for that besides he's here because we need your help. He can't even defend himself at the moment." Naruto explained his whole persona shifting into one of authority that few would dare to question. Tsunade was however skeptical knowing exactly how dangerous any Uchiha could be even with their hands restrained.

"What could you possibly need my help with?" Tsunade asked no one in the room missing the large amount of venom in her voice.

"I need you to help her." Sasuke said shifting the sleeping form of Sakura off of his back and into his arms in front of himself for Tsunade to see.

"Is that?" Tsunade said looking the sleeping girl to Sasuke to Naruto. Seeing the two men nod she brought her hand to cover her mouth as tears welled up in her eyes. Instantly the older woman sprung forward and snatched the sleeping girl away, cradling her gently in her arms as she glared up at Sasuke. "Explain this now." Was all she said before she looked back down at the pink haired girl.

Sasuke let out an annoyed sigh before he again began to recount his tail. This time however Naruto was able to chime in and help the Uchiha. It wasn't long before their tale began to intersect with the teams original mission. This caused the other Konoha nin as well as Cheren to join in the conversation. As the discussion reached it's end Tsunade looked back down at Sakura. The sleeping girl began to cough lightly at first but it soon escalate to a point where she awoke from her slumber. She coughed up a small amount of blood before she began to hyperventilate. Tsunade pushed Sakura into Sasuke's arms.

"Take her to the hospital, I need to call ahead to Shizune to prepare for her then I'll be right behind you." Sasuke nodded before he closed his eyes. When they reopened the mismatch of his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan in his right and the Rinnegan in his left, before he teleported out of the room. Tsunade by this point had reached the intercom on her desk which she pushed a couple of buttons so that it would broadcast over the entire hospital. "Shizune prepare operating room one immediately you'll know who it's for when they arrive." Tsunade said into the microphone before she shot around the desk and out of the room.

"See I told you she wouldn't mind you being a faunus." Naruto said patting Cheren on the shoulder causing everyone still present in the room to face fault at his carefree attitude. "What Baa-chan will fix Sakura up in no time, so theres no point in worrying about it." Naruto said before lacing his fingers behind his head and turning to look back at Cheren. "Have you ever had ramen before cuz I could really go for a bowl or twelve right now." Naruto said walking out of the office. Cheren heaved a heavy sigh of his own before he followed after the blonde.

BREAK

Having been able to sleep in the eight students who made up teams RWBY and HLCN felt incredibly refreshed after their long mission away. Most of the group chatted idly while they waited for their headmaster to arrive and begin their debriefing. All of them stopped when they heard the door to Ozpin's office open and they saw the man walk into the room. He quietly strolled past them to stop at a table, grabbing a large kettle he poured a glass of coffee for himself before he walked to his desk and sat down.

"So it would seem that your mission went far from how we expected." Ozpin began after he took a long sip of his coffee."Where should we begin? Perhaps with their fighting abilities." Ozpin suggested as he looked at the eight students. "Is it true that they are able to wield different elemental attacks without the use of dust?"

"We aren't entirely sure sir." Hadrian began to explain causing Blake to look away. "Our engagement with them was short but from what my team, as well as team RWBY noticed it seemed that yes there was no dust fueling their attacks."

"Hm perhaps miss Belladonna you have something you would like to add?" Ozpin said causing all of the others to look at her.

"I don't know entirely how it works but they don't use dust." Blake said earning a nod from Ozpin before she continued. "I was able to befriend one of their fighters. Shinobi they call themselves, it's basically a ceremonial name for ninjas. They fight using something he called chakra." Blake said as Ozpin took another sip of his coffee.

"How exactly does this chakra work? Is it anything like aura?" The grey haired man asked thoroughly intrigued by what he was hearing.

"It is similar to our aura that we use but at the same time it seems to be auras opposite in a way." Blake was struggling with how to word what she had learned from Naruto. "Our aura for the most part shields us, and in rare cases where the semblance allows can attack as well. Chakra is the opposite mostly being used for offensive purposes. They use chakra to create the attacks they use."

"Hm well that is interesting indeed. while you were there did you make contact with any of their local leaders?" Ozpin asked causing Hadrian to nod. The leader of team HLCN reached into his coat pulling out a small scroll which he handed to Ozpin.

"The leader of one of their countries gave us this to deliver to you." Hadrian said as Ozpin took the scroll and began to examine it.

"Alright you are all dismissed, you can take the rest of the day off but you will be expected to return to classes tomorrow. The Headmaster dismissed them still looking at the scroll as he set it down and took a sip of his coffee. "Miss Belladonna a moment if you would." Ozpin said causing the whole of team RWBY to stop and look at him. "The rest of you may go I just have a few questions for Blake since it seems she has the most intel on our new acquaintances to the north."

"Go ahead guys I'll meet you back at the room." Blake said noticing the worried expressions on her friends faces.

"We'll be waiting for you Blakey." Yang said sending a reassuring smile to her partner. Blake merely smiled in return nodding her head before turning back to Ozpin as the door closed leaving just the two of them in the office.

"So Blake tell me how you procured so much information. Especially when Hadrian's report says you had minimal combat time over there." Ozpin stated causing Blake to look down at the floor.

"It is true when we were engaged after first making landfall Team HLCN did the majority of the fighting with Team RWBY acting as support. However…." Blake paused she didn't want to say anything that could hurt Naruto since she had come to truly value him as a friend.

"However what Miss Belladonna. You have no reason to be afraid, as it stands now these people are a neutral force so there will be nothing held against you should that change." Ozpin explained causing Blake to look up at him.

"While we were there I had a chance to spar with one of their ninjas. We met six times and after every time we sparred we would sit and talk to each other." Blake said recalling her conversations with the blonde enigma that was Naruto Uzumaki. Ozpin noticed a faint blush creeping onto her cheeks and decided to keep the conversation moving.

"So what can you tell me about this fighter? How did you stack up to one another?" Ozpin asked breaking Blake from her musings.

"His name was Naruto and he was strong, incredibly so. I hate to admit it but he was holding back a lot every time we fought and I still never came close to beating him." Blake said causing Ozpin to look at her slightly surprised.

"Well that is interesting. And tell me Miss Belladonna what did he think of YOU?" Ozpin asked however the implication of his question made Blakes eyes narrow.

"He was just fine with ME." Blake shot back at the man.

"Now now Blake I meant no offense by the question, I merely needed to know if they shared the same bigotry that is sadly so prevalent here." Taking a sip of his coffee Ozpin looked at the girl. He gladly noted that she seemed appeased by his explanation. "It's a shame that strangers accept you up there, yet here you are forced to hide who you really are."

"Is there anything else that you'd like to know professor?" Blake asked as she turned and walked towards the door.

"Just one thing Miss Belladonna. Do you trust these people?" Ozpin's question made her look back over her shoulder.

"I can't speak for all of them, but I trust Naruto with my life." She answered calmly.

"That is all then, thank you Miss Belladonna you may go back to your team now." Ozpin said with a smile. The black haired girl turned and opened the door and exited the office. After she had left Glynda came walking in closing the door behind herself. As she approached the desk she saw the scroll still laying there. "Ah Glynda just in time perhaps we should open this and see what our new friends have to say." Ozpin said picking up the scroll and breaking the seal on it.

As soon as the seal was broken the scroll unrolled itself until the end of it lay on the floor showing many strange symbols which began to glow before a cloud of smoke erupted. Glynda flicked her riding crop causing the smoke to clear revealing a tall man with grey hair that seemed to defy the laws of gravity. A mask covered the lower portion of his face, leaving just his eyes visible.

"Greetings my name is Kakashi Hatake. I assume that if you've opened this scroll you are the leaders whom Hadrian reports to?" Kakashi asked the other two occupants of the office.

"Indeed I am Professor Ozpin the Headmaster of Beacon Academy, and this is My assistant Glynda Goodwitch. Ozpin introduced himself before reaching down and taking a sip of his coffee. "Might I ask exactly how you came out of that scroll?" Ozpin asked the fellow grey haired man.

"Ah you see this was a storage scroll. I will tell you I am simply a Kage Bunshin of Kakashi but you don't need to worry when I dispel he will have full knowledge of our proceedings here." The Kakashi copy said.

"So I take that to mean that you are not actually Kakashi Hatake?" Ozpin asked earning a nod from the clone.

"You are correct. He used a high level technique that creates a copy of himself, that being me and sealed me in a scroll. One advantage of this technique is that when I cease to exist for whatever reason the original receives all of my memories." Kakashi explained as he took a seat in front of the desk.

"Well then hopefully we can make good use of this time." Ozpin said to which Kakashi nodded his head in agreement. "If you don't mind my asking exactly what rank do you hold?" Ozpin asked making Kakashi smile under his mask.

"I currently hold the rank of jonin, and shortly will be taking the title of Hokage." Kakashi said before waving his hand in front of himself. "Ah but listen to me forgetting that we may as well be from different worlds. Where I come from there are five major villages as well as several smaller ones. Each of the five main villages is lead by a Kage. The village I hail from Konohagakure no Sato is lead by the Hokage. Within the next few months I will take over that position." Kakashi tried to keep his explanation simple.

"So it would seem that you are a rather high ranking individual then." Ozpin said, although he would never say it aloud he was glad to not have to bother with working his way through several people before reaching someone with actual authority. "I hope that we can continue the peace that has existed between our two sides. Even if said peace was built on a lack of knowledge that the other group was there." Ozpin said, Kakashi once again nodding his head.

"It would be a shame for any kind of conflict, and I am interested in what our two sides can offer each other." Kakashi said as Ozpin looked up at Glynda. Her scroll began to pulse with a chime that both of them recognized as an emergency signal.

"If you are able to stay I would love to discuss this with you further tomorrow, however at the moment I must deal with a pressing issue." Ozpin said crossing his hands in front of him and leaning on them.

"Sorry but my chakra has almost run out perhaps we can agree on a date, and an envoy will be sent to discuss a treaty of sorts in the future." Kakashi said causing Ozpin to nod his head.

"That is unfortunate, although in two weeks time we will be holding our annual Vytal festival. The leadership of all four Kingdoms will be present in some form or fashion. It would be the perfect place to introduce you." Ozpin explained as Kakashi nodded.

"That will be excellent, I look forward to seeing you again Professor." Kakashi said back to the man.

"There will be a tournament held if perhaps any of your warriors would care to take part in it." Ozpin informed him. He was interested in a chance to see them fight after hearing of their abilities from Miss Belladonna.

"I will see if there are any interested in taking part. Until then I bid you farewell." Kakashi said with a wave of his hand before his disappeared in another puff of smoke. After the smoke had cleared Ozpin and Glynda turned their attention to a short text from Ironwood's emergency beacon. Both of them saw the code on the screen and went about deciphering it.

"James never was one to make things easy." Glynda said as the decoding neared completion.

"He only does this on matters of the utmost importance." Ozpin said back trying to assuage some of his assistants annoyance. A single ding from her scroll meant that the message had been decoded. Before they could read it however a second non-encrypted message from Ironwood appeared on the screen. The new message read 'Sorry Ozzie scroll is acting up disregard anything previously sent. James' The two looked at each other before opening the now decoded first message and began to read it. "Glynda inform Qrow we have to handle this with the utmost care." Glynda nodded as she looked up from the message which read. 'She's made her move. Anything from me after this is not from myself.'

BREAK

Back in Konoha hospital Kakashi's eyes widened as the memories from his shadow clone hit him. He immediately stood up and began walking out of the hospital. It looked like Naruto was going to get to see Blake much sooner that he had expected.

Elsewhere in Konoha at the Ichiraku ramen stand a certain blonde and his cat eared associate were locked in a heated contest. Cheren had been skeptical of the blondes praise of this ramen dish. It only took one taste of Ichiraku's salmon flavored ramen for the faunus to begin shoveling the noodles down with gusto. Naruto upon seeing his friend take such an instant liking to his favorite food began to eat his even faster. Soon the two were surrounded by an ever growing mountain of empty ramen bowls. It wasn't until Kakashi arrived and cleared his throat that the two stopped their manic feeding frenzy to turn and look at the jonin, both of their mouths still full of noodles.

"Swallow." Was all Kakashi said with a deadpan expression as the two forced their respective mouthfuls down their throats.

"What's up Kakashi-sensei, is Baa-chan done with Sakura already?" The blonde asked causing Kakashi to shake his head.

"No I just wanted to let you know that in two weeks time you will be heading out on a mission." Kakashi said making Naruto smile.

"Wow two weeks that's a lot of heads up dontcha think Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked looking to Cheren for an opinion. The faunus simply shrugged his shoulders, seeing as he knew nothing of how things worked here.

"I'm assuming you'll want to be joining us." Kakashi said turning his gaze to the black haired man.

"Oh and why is that?" Cheren asked Kakashi suspiciously.

"I just figured you wanted to see your sister again, and this may be the best chance you have to do that." Kakashi said smiling at the two under his mask.

"We're going to Vale?" Cheren asked both he and Naruto smiled at the thought of seeing Blake again.

"Yes, I am going to meet with Ozpin and several leaders down there along with at least one of the other Kage's since I will officially be the Hokage by that time. Perhaps Gaara would like to accompany us."Kakashi said more musing to himself by the end.

"Yes I get to see Blake again." Naruto said causing Cheren to break out of his own musings to stare incredulously at the blonde.

"Oi lover boy don't be getting no ideas about my sister ya hear?" Cheren said pointing accusingly at Naruto causing the blond to sputter.

"Huh lover boy?" Naruto said in confusion. "No it's nothing like that." He explained waving his hands in front of himself.

"Oi so what she's not good enough for you? I thought you didn't have a problem with faunus." Cheren said rising from his seat.

"I have no idea whats happening anymore." Naruto said before running out of the ramen stand Cheren in hot pursuit.

BREAK

As Blake finally arrived in her room she quickly plopped down on her bed. as she lay there she reached into her pack and grabbed the book that Naruto had given her and flipped to the page she had left off on delicately unfolding the corner she had bent to mark her place. She smiled as she immersed herself in the story. Ever since Naruto had told her about his parents naming him after the protagonist in the hopes that he would grow up to be strong like the character, Blake could only picture the blonde whenever she read the book. As she continued to flip through the book she heard the door open to reveal Weiss and Ruby walking into the room. The other girls paid her no mind knowing that once Blake became engrossed as she currently was almost nothing could tear her away from her book.

"Weiss do we have to go to the library?" Ruby asked pouting about having to waste her free day studying with her partner.

"Yes Ruby we have been gone for almost two weeks. We need to go review what we worked on last and start reading ahead so that we can catch up quickly." Weiss explained in an exasperated tone. Although all work that they missed while away on missions was excused it didn't mean that they were off the hook as far as catching up on the material itself.

"Ugh fine, lets just get this over with." Ruby groaned in defeat knowing that Weiss was right. Times like this were when her being moved up two years became the most apparent. Much of what most people here had already learned was information that was untaught to her because of her skipping those classes. The two girls quickly gathered their school books before they headed out the door to go find a place to study. As they made their exit Blake heard her stomach rumble. She ignored her bodies cry for nourishment and continued reading. It wasn't until her stomach let out another much louder grumble that she gave in and decided to go to the cafeteria. As she folded the corner of yet another page Blake stood and stretched feeling her back pop in a couple different places, before she made her own way out the door. On her way to the cafeteria she passed one of the many gyms. The people inside quickly caught her attention. Inside one of the gyms one the practice floor was none other than Hadrian Brouer defending himself from an onslaught of punches thrown by the one and only Yang Xiao Long. Blake gave into her curiosity and walked towards one of the windows to watch the two. She scowled as she could hear Yang in her head making a joke about curiosity killing the cat.

Hadrian continued to back up as Yang pushed her attack. His broadsword was not an ideal weapon for fighting someone who excelled at hand to hand combat such as Yang. He was far from helpless however as he brought the blade down forcing Yang to jump backwards. Hadrian then proceeded to rush the blonde now putting her on the defensive as she used Ember Celica to block his sword. Blake noted how Yang was pushed back every time Hadrian's sword made contact. Yang noticing that she was losing ground tried to jump up and over Hadrian firing a blast from her gauntlets to propel her higher. This was rewarded by Hadrian unwittingly severing the back of Yangs belt as he swung his sword up at her. As Yang landed she heard a light thud and noticed that her legs felt slightly breezy. She looked down to see her belt and half skirt lying on the ground. Looking back to herself she realized that she was now standing in only her shorts.

"You did that on purpose." Yang yelled at Hadrian who had the decency to look the girl in the eyes.

"I most certainly did not although I won't complain with the outcome." The older student said giving her a once over, smirking at the blush that came over her face. "I think we're done for the day Xiao Long." He said as he sheathed his sword.

"No way I had you on the ropes." Was all the blonde could yell at him as he began to walk away from her.

"You have even more of an unfair advantage now so no." Was Hadrian's response, causing Yang to blush even more at what her increased amount of visible skin implied. "Maybe if you dress more appropriately next time we'll be able to settle whatever issue you have with me." Hadrian said before he opened the door and walked out. As he passed by he gave a curt nod to Blake which she returned. Both of them smiled when they heard Yang's aggravated yell. Blake finally decided to go get her teammate who she noticed had immediately begun to pummel a punching bag.

"Yang I'm heading to the cafeteria for lunch you should come with me." Blake said as the blonde sent one final punch at the bag causing it to explode.

"Fine, let's go." Was all Yang said as she stopped to pick up her belt and sling it over her shoulder.

END

Yay that chapter took a bit of time. I hope y'all can forgive me for the long update time. I won't bore you with why but I will say that this story will continue with me updating as much as possible. Lot's of reviews would be nice since I still have no idea what to do with Sun. Also SasukexSakura will not be happening in this story. I have no idea who Sasuke will end up with but I am committed to keeping him as more of a big brother for her. Anywho hopefully you guys like the chapter, and will come back next time. Until then Please review, and flames always welcome I use them to burn all the haters hopes and dreams. XD

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